After the Break
by shana852963
Summary: They said it wasn't the end of iCarly; they were just taking a 'break'. Well now that break is up and with Carly back from Italy and Sam home from L.A., the old iCarly gang is reunited at last, and it feels just like old times. But after over a year apart, will it really be that easy to go back the way things were? Takes place after iGoodbye and Sam&Cat. (This is a Seddie story).
1. Chapter 1

**AN-So as it said in the summary, this story takes place after the 'break' when Carly, Sam and Freddie are reunited after they all went their separate ways in iGoodbye. I just felt there was a lot that needed to be answered, like with the kiss between Carly and Freddie and the Seddie phone call. **

**So I hope you all enjoy this story, thanks for reading!**

…**..**

"So then Gibby realized that his feet weren't actually growing, he had just forgotten to cut his toenails," Freddie said into his Pearphone as he walked home from school. "That's why his shoes weren't fitting him anymore."  
"That's disgusting," Sam said on the other line.

"Yeah, like your thrilling tale about your back pimple was any less gross," Freddie chuckled. "So how's LA been?"

"Hot and full of celebrities, the usual," Sam replied. "Cat's actually gone this weekend. She took that kid Dice to Phoenix for a hair modeling gig."

"Nice, so you have the place to yourself?"

"No," Sam sighed. "Cat went and told her grandmother she could stay while she was gone. Now I'm stuck sharing a room with Nona!"

"Sorry," Freddie said. "Hey…I was actually thinking…you know Ridgeway has a three-day weekend coming up soon."  
"Pfft, look at you, talking about three-day weekends," Sam laughed. "With online school I have all the weekends I want."

"Not sure that's how it's supposed to be working out," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, I was thinking about maybe going down to L.A. The two of us could meet up and hang out or something. I haven't seen you since I almost got an armed ripped off by rabid tuna."

"Yeah, totally," Sam said. "There's a new ride on the boardwalk that's supposed to make you puke in less than five seconds."

"Yes…because that sounds like a blast," Freddie smiled.

"I know, right?" Sam agreed. "Man…I'm hungry."  
"Well then go eat lunch," Freddie said.

"I can't," Sam sighed. "I don't have any money. But I found this half-eaten bag of chips so I guess that can-oh…I'll call you back!"

"Sam? Wait, what-" Freddie began, but the line went dead.

He stuffed his phone back in his pocked and stepped into the lobby of Bushwell Plaza.

Ever since their reunion in L.A. six months ago, Sam and Freddie had actually been doing a much better job keeping touch with each other. They talked on the phone at least two times a week and texted several times a day.

It was almost like the old days. Except, well, she was still in a different state.

Freddie sighed as he climbed the steps up to his apartment. He really missed Sam. Seeing her for those few days in L.A. really made it clear to him just how much he needed his blonde-headed demon in his life again.

He was about to unlock the door to his apartment when he heard cheers coming from Spencer's apartment across the hall.

Curious, he let himself inside, where Spencer was jumping up and down in the living room like a child.

"Um, Spence?" Freddie said from the doorway. Still, the man ignored him. "Spencer? Spencer!"

"Huh? Oh, hey Freddie!" Spencer said, still hopping up and down. "Whooo! Yeah!"

"Um…any reason you're acting like you just won the lotto?" Freddie frowned. "Wait, did that girl from El Guapo Taco finally call you back? See, I told you just because you spilled nachos on her-"

"No, she didn't call me back," Spencer said quickly. "In fact she changed her number. But guess what? Guess _what_?"

"What?" Freddie asked.

"Carly just called!" Spencer exclaimed. "She's coming home from Italy!"

"No way!" Freddie gasped. "She's coming back _here_?"

"Uh-huh!" Spencer nodded. "For good! My dad's base is getting moved to France, so instead of having to start all over in a new country _again_, her and my dad both decided it would be best for her to come back here!"

"Oh my God!" Freddie grinned. "This is great! This is amazing! When's she coming back?"

"At the end of the month," Spencer answered. "I have to make sure everything's all ready for her! I-I have to clean her room and stock up on diet soda and get her favorite chowders!"  
Freddie chuckled as he watched Spencer continue to run around the house like a child on Christmas morning. He knew how much Spencer had missed his little sister from the moment she left last year. Having her back would be exactly what he needed.

He was excited himself too. It would be nice to have someone at school with him other than Gibby.

_It will be just like old times again_, he thought to himself. _Only…Only without Sam_.

He let out a small sigh, because he knew Sam made all the difference.

….

"You left me in jail for two weeks!" Cat yelled angrily back in L.A.

"Hey, I've been in Juvie for longer than that," Sam shrugged, shoveling a few forkfuls of Nona's leftover Macaroni and Cheese and Cheese and Cheese and Cheese into her mouth. "It wasn't that bad."

"There were these mean girls who made me drink toilet water!" Cat exclaimed. "_And _look what they did to my duck!"

She held up what looked like the remains of her stuffed animal.

"Well, you've lived with me for a year, you should've picked up some fighting tips," Sam said simply.

"I feel so dirty now," Cat shuddered, looking down at herself. "I'm gonna go take a bath."

"Remember to take your shoes _off _this time," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"Kay, kay!" Cat said brightly.

Sam sighed as she sat back down on the couch. She was going to miss having Nona around. Having someone who was so caring and actually able to keep her out of trouble sort of made her miss, well, Carly.

Back in Seattle, she didn't have to chase around her roommate and make sure she didn't do anything stupid every single day. She didn't have to hide her Numchucks so Cat wouldn't hurt herself or plan her day around whatever little kid was being dropped off at the apartment that day. She didn't have to deal with landlords or rent or making sure that Cat didn't destroy their water bill by playing pool with her stuffed animals.

She loved having Cat as a friend, but there were times when she felt like she was babysitting _her_. Sam didn't like having to be the responsible one in the apartment; it made her feel…weird. She supposed it was maybe a little good for her, but still, she longed for the days when she was able to just be her old self.

_Why did Carly have to go off to Italy_? Sam wondered. She had had this thought several times since she moved to L.A.

If Carly had never moved to Italy, she would've never felt so alone and made that rash decision to leave.

Sam thought back to that night she decided to take her new motorcycle and just drive until she found someplace to settle down. She had just watched Carly and her father pull out of the parking lot of Bushwell Plaza and for a moment she had just stood there, wondering what to do next.

She didn't know whether to go back up with Spencer and Gibby and Freddie or to just go home.

What was waiting for her upstairs now? Spencer was probably just as torn up about Carly leaving as she was. He was in no state to try and make _her _feel better. Gibby was, well, Gibby. He'd probably bore her with some lame story about his cat. And Freddie?

Sam remembered standing in the parking lot, thinking about him the longest.

They had never really been without Carly throughout their whole relationship. They had met back when they were eleven through her, the only reason they had hung out every day when they were younger was because of her, and even when they were _dating _it seemed that they both needed her to make that work. Now that Carly was gone…would they be able to manage?

_He'll probably just start hanging out with Gibby more_, Sam had thought. _He's not gonna want me around all the time without Carly. Without her, I'm just-just Sam. Just the other half of a web show that's no more. Just-Just his ex…just…nothing._

And though the idea of never seeing Freddie again cut into her stomach like a knife, Sam pulled her motorcycle helmet out from her backpack and walked over to her parked bike. She hopped on, started the engine and pulled out of the apartment building, heading for the highway and never looking back…

And for the longest time Sam figured this was how it was all supposed to end up. Carly was in Italy, Freddie was enjoying himself up in Seattle and she was here in L.A.

But then it had happened; Freddie had come looking for her!

At first when she found out he had been in L.A. six months ago, she was furious at him _and _Cat for not even letting her know! But then, after he had nearly been devoured by those tuna fish, it clicked.

Freddie had rushed to L.A. because he thought she had been hurt! He had _cared _enough to drop everything for her!

She gave a small smile as she remembered those three words he had said to her the afternoon he had finally been released from the hospital and the two of them had gone and grabbed some burgers.

"_I missed you_."

He had told her that Seattle hadn't been the same since she left, and that he wished she hadn't left.

It was then, for the first time since she had moved to L.A., that Sam had regretted her decision.

"Sam!" she suddenly heard Cat calling from the other room. "What happens if you accidently put diet soda in a bathtub instead of bubble bath?"

"I don't know!" Sam called back.

"Do you think I'll smell like soda?" Cat yelled.

"Maybe! Who cares?"

"Well I don't want to smell like soda!" Cat replied. "I'll feel sticky the whole time!"

Sam shook her head, deciding to let Cat figure out her crisis on her own.

_God I miss Seattle_, she found herself thinking as she turned on the T.V.

She looked around the apartment that had become her home this past year. Even though she lived here, she knew it would never _really _be her home.

And then it hit her. Maybe it was time to leave…L.A. had been fun and she had made some really close friends, but she didn't belong here; she couldn't stay here forever.

It was time to go home.

Her _real _home.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam stepped into her and Cat's shared bedroom, looking around. She did have some good times here. She'd miss it. But she knew she had to leave.

It was going to probably break Cat's heart, but she couldn't stay away from Seattle anymore. Even without Carly it was still her home.

And of course, there was Freddie…

"Sam? Cat?" she heard Dice calling from the living room. "Where are you guys?"

"In here!" Sam called back just as Cat stepped out of the bathroom, running a towel through her hair.

"I think I got the smell of prison off me," Cat said. "Hey, do you think this tattoo some scary lady gave me is real? I scrubbed at it for five whole minutes but it didn't come out."

"It-It will probably fade in a few days," Sam lied as Dice let himself into the room.

"Well, it's official," Dice said. "I'll never be a hair model again after Cat's wig incident."

"I still say it's a wig," Cat said simply, sitting down on her bed. "A really nice wig. Hey, maybe you could get one, Dice! Then you'd be on the cover of every hair magazine!"

"I just told you; I'm banned from hair modeling!" Dice exclaimed.

"Oh yeah…" Cat said. "Is that a bad thing?"

Dice rolled his eyes.

_Well, I might as well tell them both while they're here_, Sam thought to herself. _Get it over with…_

"Hey, guys?" Sam said slowly. "Um…I have to tell you something…kind of important."

"Did your back zit finally go away?" Dice asked.

"No!" Sam snapped.

"Oh! Did they finally make a Bibble vending machine?" Cat gasped.

"God no," Sam cringed.

"Poo," Cat pouted.

"What's up then?" Dice asked.

Sam took a deep breath. "I'm leaving."

Cat and Dice stared back at her, unmoved.

"Well where are you going? The store?" Cat said.

"Hey, can you pick me up some jelly while you're there?" Dice said.

"No!" Sam said. "I'm not going to the store. I'm _leaving_. I-I'm going back to Seattle."

Dice's eyes widened. "Huh? But you can't go!"

"Sorry kid," Sam sighed. "I need to go back home. I-I need to get back to my old life."

"But Sam!" Cat said softly. "You-You can't just leave. What about our babysitting business? And our cool apartment? And _everything_?"

Sam gave her a small smile. "I know. Look, Cat, I-I've really loved hanging here this past year…but it was never supposed to be permanent. I mean my whole life is back in Seattle. My mom, my friends-"

"Freddie?" Cat finished for her.

Sam was momentarily taken back by Cat's sudden wisdom. "Um, yeah," she mumbled. "Freddie too."

"Freddie?" Dice said, confused. "What's he got to do with anything?"  
Sam laughed at the twelve-year olds' innocence.

"But Sam, how am I supposed to babysit without you?" Cat asked again. "You're the one who can scare the kids into behaving. I try to be scary with them but they always just laugh in my face. Without you they'll tie me down and give me more tattoos! It will be just like prison! Oh my gosh! What if they go for my stuffed animals too?"

She made a dive onto her bed, scooping up as many animals as she could.

"Cat, relax!" Sam said, shaking her head. "No one's gonna destroy your lame toys. Look, why don't you ask Nona to move back in?"

"Nona?" Cat repeated.

"Sure, you said she used to babysit the building kids before I got here," Sam reasoned. "She can move back here and help you. She can have my bed, she can do your laundry she can cook for you...the lady makes pretty decent ribs."

"Yeah, Nona knows her ribs," Cat nodded. "One time she brought them to the special clinic where my brother lives and everybody loved them. And then my brother's friends tried to steal the leftover ribs by trapping Nona in the lobby and a bunch of doctors had to come and rescue her."

"Fun stuff," Sam nodded. "Look, Cat…you'll be fine without me. You managed without me for sixteen years before I came along, didn't you?"

"I thought you two met because you rescued her from a garbage truck, though," Dice pointed out.

"Not helping!" Sam hissed. She turned back to Cat. "Come on, I'm sorry I'm just sort of springing this on you, but…it's something I have to do. I don't belong in L.A. like you."

"Well…will-will you write when you go back to Seattle?" Cat sniffed.

"Um, no, because this isn't the nineteen twenties," Sam said. "But I'll _text _you. And we can chat via webcam and send each other stupid cat videos on Splashface."

"I do love stupid cat videos," Cat said.

"And if you're ever in Seattle…give me a call," Sam smiled. She looked over at Dice. "You too, kid."

"Well are you at least going to stay here a little longer?" Dice asked.

"I have to get a few parts fixed on my motorcycle before I take it all the way back home," Sam said. "And that will take some time. I'll probably be sticking around until the start of next month. That means you guys still have two weeks of Puckett to put up with."

"It's pronounced Puckle," Cat corrected.

"Cat, _why _would I be mispronouncing my own last name?" Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"I don't know, I've corrected you enough times," Cat shrugged. "I thought you'd have learned by now."

…..

"-And I have my ant farm all moved out of her room," Spencer told Freddie about two weeks after he had gotten the news that Carly was returning. "I may have dropped the tank on her bed, but I think I got the little guys all cleaned up."

"I can't believe she's finally coming back," Freddie said.

"Hey, you think we should have a surprise party or something for her when she gets here?" Spencer asked. "We could get cake and those wacky hats she likes and we'd have everyone over! You, Gibby, T-Bo-"

"Yeah, everyone," Freddie sighed. "Except Sam."

Spencer's face faltered. "I-Yeah. Everyone except Sam…"

"It just doesn't feel right," Freddie mumbled. "Carly's going to be here, but-but Sam's still in L.A."

"Does she know Carly's coming back?" Spencer asked.

"No," Freddie said. "I haven't talked to her since, just a few text messages. She's been busy. She told me her roommate was arrested for some wig incident and I'm sure she's been dealing with that. Besides, what good is it going to do? She's still going to be in L.A. and-wait! Spencer! You're a genius!"

"Well I mean I _did _go to law school for seventy-two hours," Spencer said modestly. "Wait…what'd I do?"

"Sam left Seattle in the first place because she was upset that Carly left!" Freddie said, pulling out his phone. "But now that she's coming back maybe that can be enough to convince Sam to come back too!"

"Oh yeah!" Spencer nodded. "Wow, I _am _a genius."

"I can't believe I didn't think of this before," Freddie said, quickly pulling up Sam's number. "Maybe, just _maybe _we can get both the girls back here."

He pressed his phone to his ear, his heart racing. He hoped he wasn't getting himself psyched up for nothing.

"Hello?" he heard Sam answer on the other line.  
"Sam!" Freddie said, hoping he didn't sound overly excited. "Listen, Sam, I have to-"

"Dude, I was just about to call you," Sam cut him off. "I have something I-I sort of need to tell you."

"What is it?" Freddie asked, curious.

"I'm coming back to Seattle."

Freddie almost dropped his phone. "You-You're _what_? Are you serious? You're coming back home?"

"Yeah, I figured…I figured it was time to come back," Sam replied. "L.A.'s been great, but I don't think there's much left here for me. I miss Seattle."

_I've missed you too_, Freddie thought to himself.

"I-Sam, that's great," Freddie said, still overwhelmed at this sudden surprise. "I-I told you, it hasn't been the same here without you."

"Yeah, I bet you miss your weekly wedgies," Sam chuckled.

"Maybe a little," Freddie grinned. "Oh, and this is perfect! I don't know if you've heard yet, but-"

"Hey, listen, I've got to go," Sam said before he could finish. "I sort of promised Cat that since I'm leaving L.A. soon we'd spend the rest of my time here together. So she's dragging me to some store that puts your face on giant balloons. But I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"I-Yeah, okay," Freddie said. "Wait, when-when are you coming back?"

"The first of next month," Sam replied. "Okay, well, Cat is gonna explode if we don't leave soon, so I really have to go. Bye, nub."

He hung up slowly and turned back to Spencer. "She's coming home…Sam's coming back!"

"Alright!" Spencer cheered.

"I didn't even get to tell her about Carly," Freddie said, still in a daze. "She's coming back on her own. Spencer, this is it; it's _finally _going to go back to normal! We'll all go to Ridgeway, we'll start up iCarly again, we'll hang out here and eat all your food…this is just what we've been wanting since Carly and Sam left!"

"Hey, if Sam doesn't know that Carly's coming home, and Carly still thinks Sam will be in L.A. when she gets here…why don't we surprise them?" Spencer said thoughtfully. "When's Sam getting back?"

"The same day as Carly," Freddie grinned. "Spencer, that's a great idea! They haven't seen each other in over a year. They'll be so happy when they get here and realize they're _both_ back!"

"I guess that brain boost smoothie I had earlier really did its job," Spencer said proudly, patting his head.

"Is that why you put your shoes on the wrong feet?" Freddie asked, looking down at the man's feet.

"What? My shoes aren't on the-dang it!" Spencer yelled.

"Hey, I've got to get home; it's spinach loaf night and if I'm late my mom will flip out," Freddie said. "But I'll call Gibby tonight and we can start planning a surprise party for Carly and Sam tomorrow."

"Alright," Spencer agreed, kicking off his shoes and switching them to the correct feet.

As Freddie left the apartment, Sam's words kept running through his head.

"_I'm coming home."_

"It's about time, Princess Puckett," Freddie smiled to himself.


	3. Chapter 3

"What time are you picking up Carly from the airport again?" Freddie asked as him and Gibby struggled to hang up a large 'Welcome Home' banner in Spencer's living room.

"Her plane doesn't come in until nine tonight," Spencer replied, looking up from the balloon sculpture he was making.

"Hey, what is that thing?" Gibby asked.

"Well you know how they have those people at circuses and fairs and stuff who make balloon animals?" Spencer grinned.

"Oh jeez," Freddie sighed.

"Well I decided to do even better than that and make balloon _people,_" Spencer said proudly. "So I'm making balloon replicas of Carly and Sam. They're gonna be so surprised when they come in and see their balloon selves just floating around and-Ah!"

The balloons had suddenly burst into flames and Freddie rushed over with the fire extinguisher, quickly getting rid of the fire.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Gibby frowned.

"No!" Spencer exclaimed.

"Dude, let's try to not burn the place down before the girls get back and see the surprise party we've spent the past two weeks planning for them," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.

"It's not my fault! I had a pretty good track record with balloons!" Spencer defended.

"Well that record's gone now," Gibby commented.

"Gibby!" Spencer snapped.

"Maybe you should go down to the bakery and pick up the cake," Freddie suggested.

"Nah, it's not gonna be ready for another hour," Spencer said, flopping down onto the couch. "Hey, you're sure Sam will be back here at the same time as Carly?"

"She should, she left L.A. this morning," Freddie said. "And I told her to come here when she got back."

"Hey, don't you guys think that they would give such a big city a name with only two letters?" Gibby said. "I mean L.A. is just like, a set of initials or something."

"Um, Gib?" Freddie frowned. "You _do _realize L.A. stands for _Los Angeles_, right?"

"What? Pfft, no way," Gibby scoffed. "That's just ridiculous. Next you'll be telling me that MTV stands for music television."  
"It _does_," Spencer said.

"Then how come there's no music on it, hmm?" Gibby smirked triumphantly.

"I-I don't know, actually," Spencer said thoughtfully. "Hmm, maybe you have a point…"

"Okay, if you two could snap out of it for five seconds, can you help me hang the rest of these banners?" Freddie said, shaking his head.

"Don't we have enough banners?" Gibby moaned.

"Come on, don't you want this place to look nice when Carly and Sam get back here?" Freddie said. "Put in a little effort here!"

"I said the same thing to you when I wanted to wallpaper my room last week, but did I get any elbow grease out of you? No!" Gibby said indignantly.

"Dude, the place looks fine," Spencer told Freddie. "And the girls won't be here for almost twelve more hours. Why don't you just relax or something?"

"I'm just…nervous, that's all," Freddie said.

"Nervous?" Spencer repeated. "Why?"

"I dunno, it's been over a year since we've all been together," Freddie shrugged. "I guess I'm just hoping that things will be like they used to be now. Even after all this."

"They will be," Spencer assured him. "You three were like, the best friends ever!"

"Wow," Gibby said, crossing his arms. "That didn't hurt…"

"You'll see," Spencer said, ignoring Gibby's comment. "It will be just like Carly and Sam never left."

…..

"-And when the Flynn twins come over, you hide _all _the spoons," Sam told Cat as the girls and Dice stood in front of their apartment building. "And remember, when Dora comes on the T.V. she's not _really _talking to you, you don't have to answer back."

"I just really wanted to help her find her way to the Chocolate Volcano," Cat said softly.

Sam gave her a small smile. "I'll miss you Cat." She turned to Dice. "You too, kid."

"You sure you can't stay for a few more hours?" Dice asked.

"Nah, I've got to go," Sam told him, playfully messing up his hair. "It's a long drive back to Seattle."  
"You promise you won't get into any trouble or do anything illegal?" Cat asked.

Sam held out her arms and to hug the redhead. "No," she said.

"Well, here," Cat sniffed, reaching into her bag and pulling out her stuffed purple giraffe. "At least take this."  
"Cat, this is your favorite stuffed animal," Sam said, staring down at the giraffe in disbelief.

"Yeah, I know," Cat nodded. "But I want you to have him now. So you never forget about me."  
"Aw Cat," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "I'm not gonna forget you. I dealt with your antics for a whole year. I'm sure they'll come up at some interrogation."

"Well, just in case," Cat said. She handed Sam a slip of paper. "Oh, and here's all his allergy information and pizza topping preferences."

"Right," Sam chuckled.

"Hey, if you want to get on the road before the sun comes up, you should probably get going," Dice commented, looking up at the sky.

"Oh, right," Sam sighed. She looked down at him. "Stay out of trouble, kid. And keep an eye on Cat."

"I will," Dice nodded.

Sam turned back to Cat. "Well…thanks for letting me crash here."

"Thanks for saving me from that garbage truck," Carly smiled.

Sam gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "See you later, guys."

And with that she stepped onto her motorcycle and gave Dice and Cat one last wave before she started her engine and headed out onto the road, back to Seattle.

…..

"Sam's in Seattle!" Freddie said excitedly that evening as him and Gibby waited anxiously in Spencer's apartment. "She just texted me! She has to fill up her bike with gas and then she'll be here!"

"But Spencer's not back with Carly yet," Gibby pointed out.

"He should be here any minute," Freddie replied. "Carly's plane got in an hour ago so that means that-"

"Hey guys!" Spencer said suddenly, poking his head into the apartment. "Guess what I just picked up at the airport…"

He opened the door wider and Carly stepped inside, beaming.

"Carly!" Freddie exclaimed as she ran over and wrapped her arms around him. "Carly, I've missed you so much!"

"I've missed you too!" Carly grinned. "Wow, this place looks great!"

She turned to Gibby. "Gib, come here! I can't believe I've gone a whole year without your kaki pants and rubber head replica. Hey, where is your head replica? Don't you still carry it around everywhere?"

"Yeah," Gibby said, returning her hug. "But a buddy of mine down at the day spa is getting rid of a few spots on him for me."

"Aw Gib, you haven't changed a bit," Carly chuckled. "Now…"

She turned back to Freddie and thumped him hard on the back of his head.

"Ow!" Freddie cried indignantly. "What was that for?"

"What was that for?" Carly snapped. "Dude! I thought it was implied that when I left _you _got the task of keeping Sam out of trouble! And what do you do? You let he skip town and move to L.A!"

"I didn't _let _her," Freddie defended. "She left without telling me."  
"Oh same thing!" Carly said, rolling her eyes. "How could you have let her just leave? Is she okay? I've talked to her on the phone and she _said _she was fine, but I don't know if that's true or if she was just telling me that so I wouldn't worry."  
"Carly," Freddie started. "Sam really is fine. She-"

"Well, you know what we're gonna have to do," Carly said firmly. "Tomorrow we're gonna go down to L.A. and I'll talk some sense into once and for all and bring her back home. Spence, you think we could borrow Socko's RV?"  
"Um…" Spencer said lamely.

"I just hope she hasn't gotten into too much trouble there," Carly sighed. "L.A.'s probably crawling with cops, what with all the celebrities, and she's apparently living without any adults so who knows if there's anyone keeping her from doing something stupid! Man…now I'm all stressed. Hey, is that cake over there?"

"Um, yeah, it is," Freddie said as his phone buzzed. "But you can't have any yet."  
"Why not?" Carly asked. "I'm starving. That flight didn't serve dinner."

Freddie glanced over at Spencer and gave him a quick wink.

"You can't have any," Spencer told Carly as Freddie inched towards the front door. "Because our _other _guest isn't here yet."

"Other guest?" Carly said, curious. "Who? T-Bo?"

"No, T-Bo's away at a smoothie convention in Manhattan," Gibby replied.

"Well then who's the other guest?" Carly asked. "Oh no, it's not-_please _tell me it's not Mrs. Benson. Er, no offense Freddie."  
"It's not my mom," Freddie chuckled as he heard footsteps coming from the hallway.

"Then I have no idea who it could be," Carly said. "I mean apart from you guys, who else would-"

"Mama's back!" Sam suddenly said, bursting into the apartment.

"Sam!" Freddie smiled as Sam dropped her bags on the floor.

"'Sup, Freddison?" Sam grinned as she hugged Freddie. "Hey, I found this little shop at a rest stop on my way here that sold fancy soaps. I picked up some for everybody. They had some that looked like presidents and old movie stars and-"

"Sam?" Carly gasped. "Sam! Sam, it-it's you!"

Sam spun around and when she saw Carly, her eyes widened and she dropped the bag of soaps.

"Carly!" Sam exclaimed, her face lighting up. "What are you-when did you-I thought you were in Italy!"

"Well I thought you were in L.A!" Carly cried.

"Surprise!" Freddie said as him, Spencer and Gibby watched the two girls.

"Wait, you-you knew Sam was coming home the same time as me?" Carly asked.

"Uh-huh!" Spencer nodded.

"Well why didn't anyone tell us?" Sam demanded.

"Because then it wouldn't be a surprise, duh," Gibby said.

Carly and Sam looked back at each other. They simply stood there for a moment before they simultaneously ran towards the other and hugged each other tightly.

"I can't believe you're really here!" Sam said.

"I can't believe _you're _really here!" Carly chuckled. "Hey, did you cut your hair? I love it."

"Thanks. Hey, you're wearing your hair in a ponytail! You never used to do that!"

"I decided to try it out down in Italy and realized it was actually pretty nice not having my hair in my face all the time. Oh my God, Sam, I have to tell you about all the boys in Italy. They're _way _cuter over there then they are here."

"Duh," Sam grinned. "It's the gelato, it's magic. Oh! You remember that girl we hated from _America Sings _three seasons ago? I saw her in L.A. and she looks _horrible _now, total train wreck. Hang on, I have some pics on my phone…"  
"See," Spencer said to Freddie as Carly and Sam continued to catch up. "Just like old time."


	4. Chapter 4

"I can't tell you how badly I've been wanting a spaghetti taco," Carly grinned as the gang sat around the kitchen table. "They have plenty of spaghetti in Italy, but no tacos."

"Yeah, and I couldn't have them in L.A. either," Sam said as she started on her third spaghetti taco. "My roommate had this weird thing about noodles longer than three inches long…So tell us more about Italy, Carls. Did you have fun with all the cute Italian guys?"

"No," Carly pouted. "They all spoke Italian!"

"Wow, guys in Italy spoke Italian?" Freddie chuckled. "Gee, what a surprise."

"Yeah, wouldn't they speak French or something?" Gibby said.

"Um, you're kidding, _right_?" Spencer frowned.

"Oh…" Gibby said as everybody stared at him. "Y-Yeah. _Totally_. Pfft, _French_."

"But I did get a bunch of pics of some really hot guys that always worked out in the park across from my bedroom window," Carly continued. "I had to stop a couple weeks ago when they finally spotted me, but the ones I got are pretty great. I'll show you later, Sam."

"Sweet," Sam smirked.

"But it was still so much fun being there," Carly said. "I got to spend a lot of time with my dad. He took me on a tour of his naval base, he helped me with my homework, and every Sunday afternoon we had lunch at this _amazing _pizza place. Your ancestors really knew what they were doing when they invented that stuff, Sam. So what about you? How was L.A.? You said you found a part-time job, how was that?"

"Eh, it was okay," Sam shrugged.

"Um, Sam, how does starting your own business qualify as just 'okay'?" Freddie said.

"Your own business?" Carly repeated, surprised. "You-You started a _business_?"

"Me and my roommate just babysat a couple of kids every now and then," Sam said. "It wasn't that big of a deal."

"Wait, how did Freddie know about this and not me?" Carly asked.

"Eh, the nub came down to L.A. a few months ago when he thought I was run over by a sports utility vehicle," Sam said.

"You got hit by a sports utility vehicle?" Carly gasped.

"No," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "He's just really gullible."

"Well Cat said you broke your buttock!" Freddie defended.

"You can't break a buttock!"

"You can _so _break a buttock!"

"Dude, there are _girls _around here!" Spencer hissed.

"Okay," Carly said, amused. "Clearly we have a lot to catch up on during our sleepover tonight. I mean…you _are _sleeping over tonight, Sam, right?"

"Is that even a question?" Sam grinned as her phone began to buzz. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked down at the screen. "Oh, I almost forgot. I was supposed to call everybody down in L.A. and let them know I got here safe. I'm just gonna run outside for a sec…"

"Well hurry back!" Spencer said. "There's cake for desert."

Sam frowned. "Did _you _make the cake?"

"No, I picked it up from a bakery," Spencer shrugged.

"Then great," Sam said, clapping him on the shoulder as she hurried out of the apartment.

"Hey, did she just imply I can't bake?" Spencer frowned.

"How come you didn't ask Freddie and me to sleepover?" Gibby asked.

"Sorry Gib, mine and Sam's sleepovers are strictly girls only," Carly told him.

"Yeah, would you want to sit around and paint your nails and read stupid fashion magazines anyway?" Freddie pointed out.

"It'd be nice to invited," Gibby snipped.

"Dude, just crash at my place if you want," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "My mom's staying in Olympia with her cousin to help her out with an odor situation."

"Fine," Gibby said. He turned to Carly. "Freddie and I will just have our own sleepover with out you."

"Yeah…_never _call it that again," Freddie frowned.

"Hey, who wants ice cream on their cake?" Spencer asked as he began to clear the dishes.

"Oh, me!" Carly smiled. "What flavor?"

"Chocolate or this new kind some guy talked me into trying at the grocery store," Spencer replied. "It's called Surprise Crunch."

"What's the surprise?"

"I don't know," Spencer said. "When I asked the guy just laughed and walked away…"

"Um, I'll stick to chocolate, thanks," Carly said. "Maybe Sam will be braver and try that kind when she gets back in."

"I'll go ask her," Freddie said, quickly getting to his feet. Truthfully, he had been wanting to give Sam a _real _hello since she arrived, now could be his chance. "I'll have just plain chocolate too, Spence."

"Whimp!" Spencer called after him.

Freddie stepped out into the hallway where Sam was still talking on her phone.

"No, Cat, the dishwasher is only for dishes!" Sam said, shaking her head. "What made you think it could be used as-It doesn't matter what you saw on the Internet!"

Freddie chuckled, leaning against the wall to wait until Sam finished her call.

"Alright, well, get Dice or Nona or someone to help you clean up the mess," Sam sighed. "I'll talk to you later. Tell everyone I said hey. Yeah…bye."

"Trouble in L.A.?" Freddie smirked.

"Eh, Cat was just trying a little _experiment_," Sam shrugged. "What are you doing out here?"

"Oh, um, I-do you want ice cream on your cake?" Freddie said quickly.

"Um, _duh_," Sam nodded.

"Okay…great," Freddie said. He bit the corner of his lip. "So did you have a good drive back here?"

"Yeah it was fine," Sam said. "I got some nice truck stop burgers."

"Of course," Freddie said. "Um, well…how do you like being back so far?"

Sam grinned. "I love it. I didn't realize how much I missed it here. Plus me and Carly will finally be able to catch up. I mean we talked on the phone a lot but there was that time difference thing and all that…"

"I know," Freddie said. "Anyway, listen…I know tonight's gonna be yours and Carly's night to hang out and everything, but maybe tomorrow all of us could do something. We could get lunch. You in?"

"You paying?"

"Sure," Freddie chuckled.

"Then I'm in," Sam smiled. She cleared her throat. "Hey, um...at one of the rest stops I stopped at today, I saw something that reminded me of you so I figured I'd get it for you..."

"You didn't have to-" Freddie started.

"I know," Sam said, rummaging through her pocket. "But, um, don't mention it to anybody else. I don't have cash to be buying _everybody _stuff. Where'd it go….ah-ha! Here it is!"

She pulled out a small keychain and handed it to him.

He looked down at it and saw an image of a camera that looked just like the one he had used for so many years to film iCarly.

"I got it before I left California," Sam told him. "I saw it and, well, it seemed nubbish enough so I figured why not?"

"Sam," Freddie said softly. "Thank you."

"It's a five dollar keychain, Fredwad," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Don't get all sentimental."

"I won't," Freddie said quickly, pulling out his keys and attaching the keychain to them. He held out his arms and hugged her. She felt so familiar in her arms even after all this time. "I really missed you, Sam."

"I missed you too," Sam echoed.

…..

"I moved the extra pillows and blankets that Sam always used in here somewhere," Spencer said to Carly later that evening as the siblings walked into the iCarly studio. "I think they're in that box back there…You can go back down if you want. I'll bring them out."

"It's okay," Carly said. "I'll help you get them."

She looked around the old studio nostalgically.

"Hey, you guys think you'll start up iCarly again?" Spencer asked.

"I don't know," Carly replied. "Probably. I'll have to talk to Sam and Freddie about it."

"You guys should," Spencer told her. "The web's been totally boring since you left. You know what I've resorted to doing? Watching knitting videos on Splashface!"

"Um…why?" Carly frowned.

"I don't even know!"

"Well, I think it's safe to say that Sam and Freddie will be all for doing it again," Carly chuckled. "They've both said how much they've missed it…"

As Spencer began to rummage through a few boxes off in the corner, Carly stepped over to the empty tech cart that stood in the middle of the room.

She gave a small sigh as she remembered the last time she had stood here…

Freddie was packing up his equipment and she was an hour away from leaving for Italy. She had come up to the studio to say goodbye to him, but, well…she had kissed him.

She didn't know why she did it. She didn't feel anything from it. She always saw it as just a 'so long' kiss. Sure, it had been impulsive, but…it was _just _a kiss. Her and Freddie had never even brought it up again when they would talk on the phone or webcam.

Still, though…she knew there was someone she needed to tell about it.

Sam.

Carly could tell from the moment the three had been reunited that there was still something there between her and Freddie; the same something that had been there even after they had broke up last year.

She wouldn't be surprised if the two of them got back together soon. She saw the way they kept looking at each other throughout dinner and they way Freddie's face lit up every time Sam would laugh.

And Carly knew she owed it to her best friend to tell her what had happened that night she had left for Italy.

She just hoped she'd understand.

"Hey, Carls?" Sam said, coming up into the studio. "The movie's all ready and I made us popcorn."

"Alright," Carly said. "I was just helping Spencer find the extra blankets for you."  
"Got them!" Spencer announced, holding up a large bundle of sheets.

"Thanks," Sam said, taking the blankets. She turned back to Carly. "Alright, Shay. I've decided since this is our first sleepover in over a year, I'll grit my teeth and…paint my nails with you."

"Seriously?" Carly exclaimed. "You never paint your nails!"

"I know," Sam smiled. "But, well…tonight's a special night. It's my first night back with my best friend. I can deal with ten layers of gunk on my nails."  
Carly beamed as her and Sam hugged.

Carly would tell her…she really would.

But not tonight.

Tonight she wanted to enjoy finally being back with her best friend.


	5. Chapter 5

"I still can't believe you actually started a babysitting service," Carly said to Sam as the girls sat in the middle of Carly's room, flipping through magazines. "I thought you hated children. And work! _And _responsibility!"

"Eh, sometimes the kids were annoying, but for the most part, they were pretty cool, believe it or not," Sam replied. "It was the parents that really irritated me. There was this one lady who expected me to feed her two-year old only foods that started with the letter 'A' because she thought that would make him a straight-A student later on!"

"That makes absolutely no sense," Carly frowned.

"I know!"

"Whoa," Carly said, looking at her phone. "It's already four in the morning. I didn't realize how late it was. Or, well, early. Maybe we should get to sleep."  
"It's fine, we'll just sleep till noon," Sam shrugged. "Oh, wait…Freddie actually wanted us all to go get lunch. But whatever, I'll just tell him we'll have to push it back a few hours."

"Hey…" Carly said slowly. "Speaking of Freddie…did he really go down to visit you in L.A.?"

"Uh-huh," Sam nodded. "My roommate called him down to try and get back at me for hanging out with one of _her _friends. It was actually pretty funny, see, I was supposed jump over these vicious tuna fish but Cat locked me in a closet and went to do the jump dressed as me, but she wound up screwing up and knocking Freddie and some weird guy with an afro into the tuna tank."

"Oh…so I guess you stayed in touch with him a lot while you were in L.A.," Carly said.

"Yeah, after that whole thing, I guess I did," Sam said. "I mean he was at least in the same time zone as me. I didn't have to worry about waking him up at three in the morning like _somebody_."

Carly laughed. "That's true…So, um what-what did you and Freddie talk about while you were, you know, keeping in touch?"

"I dunno, just-just your normal chiz," Sam shrugged. She looked down at her lap, and Carly knew that was a sign that there was something else on her mind.

"What's up?" Carly asked.

"Nothing," Sam sighed. "Just…Well, when Cat brought Freddie down to try and make me jealous, I-I think it worked."

"You mean-You mean that you-"

"I don't know," Sam said softly.

"Sam…" Carly said slowly. "You missing Freddie…was that the reason you came back from L.A.?"

Sam gave her a small smile. "Maybe…It was definitely part of it, okay? I missed everybody, Freddie included. And you, kid, but I didn't think I'd get to see you here too! Man…Spence and Fredbag really did good with that whole surprise thing, didn't they?"

"Yeah," Carly grinned. "I was thinking I'd have to go down to L.A. this weekend and drag you home myself."

"Well, sorry to ruin your trip," Sam chuckled.

"I'll forgive you," Carly said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, back to Freddie…do you think anything's gonna happen between you two now that you're back in Seattle? You think you'll get back together or-"

"Whoa, Carls, slow down," Sam said. "I-I don't know what's gonna happen. Maybe things will work out between us…maybe they won't. But I'll worry about that later."

Carly nodded. It looked like Sam hadn't changed too much in L.A. She still seemed to be terrified to chase after her feelings or even acknowledge them herself.

But Carly knew…

_She really __**does **__have feelings for him_, she realized.

And that made the weight pressing inside of her as the image of the kiss her and Freddie had shared floated around in her mind even stronger.

…

"Well duh!"

"We have to!"

"The show was a lot of fun!"

"So you guys really want to?" Carly said later the next day as her, Sam, Freddie and Gibby sat around their old table at the Groovy Smoothie.

"Carls, of _course _we want to start up iCarly again," Freddie said, sipping his smoothie. "That show was practically my life. Without it I was just some dorky loser with a camera."

"Wow, I leave for a year and the nub starts insulting himself," Sam chuckled. "Efficient. But knock it off, Fredwad. Mama's back now and _I'll _be handling the blows to your self-esteem from now on."

"Good to know," Freddie grinned.

"Well if we're gonna start the show up again, we'll really need to get down to planning," Carly said. "I'll get my notecards ready!"

"Oh _yay_…" Sam said, her voice dripping in sarcasm.

"Hey, can I dress up in a costume for our first episode back?" Gibby asked.

"What sort of costume?" Freddie asked.

"I was thinking something silver," Gibby said. "See, my mom told me the other day that I looked good in shiny things."

"Um, we-we'll see if we can fit it in," Carly said reluctantly.

"Yeah, no we won't," Sam said bluntly, finishing the last of her fries. "Hey, you guys wanna see a movie tonight? I've been wanting to see that new one with the monkeys but no one ever wanted to go with me back in L.A."

"Can't," Carly said. "I promised Spencer the two of us would hang out tonight."

"I have to pick up Guppy from his therapy session," Gibby said.

"I'll go," Freddie replied. "I'm not busy tonight."

"You sure?" Sam said. "This movie's rated_ PG-13_. You sure your mom won't flip out?"

"My mom will be fine with it," Freddie said.

"You're not gonna tell her, are you?" Sam smirked knowingly.

"I'll be telling her I'm seeing the knitting documentary they're showing," Freddie said.

"Smart man," Sam said. She looked down at her empty smoothie. "Aw dang it! I'm out."

"Here, I was gonna go up and get a refill anyway," Carly said, taking her cup.

"I'll go with you," Freddie said, picking up his own cup. "You want anything, Gib?"

"Yeah," Gibby nodded.

Freddie stared at him for a moment. "Well…tell me your order."

"Oh, not from here," Gibby said. "I just meant in general."

"You see what I've been dealing with this past year," Freddie sighed as him and Carly headed up to the counter.

"Eh, I'm sure Gibby wasn't that bad," Carly reasoned.

"Well, no," Freddie admitted. "But still."

"Yeah," Carly said, clearing her throat as she looked down at her feet. "Hey, um, Freddie? I-I've been meaning to talk to you about something. Something-Something pretty important."

"What is it?" Freddie frowned.

Carly took a deep breath. "I-Um…"  
She looked back over at Sam, still sitting with Gibby at the table.

_I can't do this here_, Carly told herself. _Not in the middle of the Groovy Smoothie._

"Um, listen," Carly said. "Can-Can you come by my place tonight? After you and Sam get back from the movies?"

"Er, yeah, okay," Freddie nodded. "Why?"

"Oh…just-just need some help with uploading some Italy pics," Carly said lamely.

"Alright," Freddie said. "No problem, Carly."


	6. Chapter 6

"That movie was _horrible_."

"Worst I've seen in years."

Sam and Freddie filed out of the theatre, laughing as they recalled the stupidest scenes from the film they had just watched.

"I mean what sort of idiot goes out into the jungle _alone_, at _night_, when he _knows _there's a killer gorilla on the loose?" Freddie said, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, and like a twelve-foot gorilla could be stunned by one little Taser," Sam scoffed. "I've been tased…it's really not that bad."

Freddie grinned as he tossed his empty popcorn container into the trash. "Still…I have to say, I think that movie was bad enough to actually make it enjoyable."

"I know, right?" Sam said, her blue eyes sparkling.

Freddie couldn't help but stare into them. They hadn't lost any of their magic in L.A.; they could still draw you in and captivate you for hours.

Freddie felt his heartbeat quicken, and he cleared his throat as he diverted his gaze.

"Hey, um, I'm glad we got to do this," Freddie said. "Come here tonight…just the two of us."

Sam looked down at her feet, but not before Freddie could see her cheeks blushing. "Me too."

There were so many more things Freddie wanted to say to her.

How happy he was that she was back; maybe even happier than he was that Carly was back.

How she seemed to glow from the California tan she had picked up, making her golden locks stand out even more than they usually did.

How much he wanted to reach over for her hand during the entire movie and never let go again…

"Hey, you, um, up for some Meat golf?" Freddie instead asked.

"Meat golf?" Sam repeated, her mouth curling into a grin. "We haven't played that since I left."

"I know," Freddie said. "I actually tried to teach Gibby how to play once."

"How'd that go?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not good," Freddie said, shuddering slightly at the memory. "Not good at all."

"You know, I-I did try and play with Cat and Dice once in L.A.," Sam told him. "And, well, long story short, we had to pay for the vet bills for our neighbor's pet armadillo…"

"I guess the game was only ever meant to be played by the pros," Freddie chuckled. "So what do you say? Want a quick game?"

"Shoosh yeah I do," Sam nodded eagerly. "Let's go to the butcher's and get some giant meatballs and putt it up!"

"Alright," Freddie nodded. "Come on, let's-aw, shoot!"

"What?"

"It's ten, the butcher's is closed," Freddie sighed. "We're gonna have to take a rain check."

"Aw," Sam said, and Freddie couldn't help but notice her disappointment. "Well…we could go tomorrow and get the meat and play then."

"Definitely," Freddie nodded. "It's a date."

As soon as the words left his mouth, he wanted to kick himself.

"I mean, er, it's a plan…" he corrected lamely. He cleared his throat, trying to ignore the awkwardness he had just created. "Hey, wanna come back over to Carly's with me? I'm supposed to help her upload some pictures from Italy."

"Yeah, okay," Sam agreed. "Let's go, Benson."

…

"Now see, what Juanita doesn't know is that her boyfriend's cousin's barber is actually _her _twin sister that her parents have lied to her about having," Spencer said as him and Carly sat in front of the T.V. that evening. "But Mrs. Gonzales, the cleaning woman, knows the whole story and she's just waiting for much younger boyfriend to return from space so she can cash in on the whole thing."

"Uh-huh," Carly said distractedly.

"Hey, Carls? What's wrong?" Spencer frowned, muting the television. "We always used to watch Spanish soap operas; they're the best kind of foreign drama!"

"Oh, um, nothing," Carly said quickly. "That-That Juanita…she's something alright."

"Come on, Carly, what's bugging you?" her older brother said, concerned.

Carly sighed. Well, she supposed if she was going to talk to anyone about this, she might as well talk to the one person who had been there for her throughout her entire life. "I just…I think I made a mistake, Spencer."

"You-Did something happen in Italy?" Spencer said seriously.

"No," Carly said heavily. "Before Italy…"

"Well what is it?" Spencer said. "I'm sure it's not that bad."

"I dunno," Carly mumbled. "I think it is."

"What happened?" Spencer said, putting a supporting arm around her.

"The night I left for Italy," Carly began. "I-I went up to the iCarly studio to say goodbye to Freddie. And, well, I-I don't really know what I was thinking but-but…I kissed him!"

"You kissed Freddie?" Spencer gasped.

"Yeah," Carly said, shaking her head. "I don't know why I did it. I don't like him that way, I really don't. He's like another brother! But I guess I was just so overwhelmed with emotions and by the fact that I was leaving him and I wouldn't have him across the hall anymore…"

"Well, Carly, I-I get why you think that was a mistake, but why is it bugging you now?" Spencer asked. "That was over a year ago. Freddie didn't bring it up, did he?"

"No," Carly said. "But I-I _do _need to talk to him about it, because-because Sam doesn't know I kissed him and, well, come on, you saw them last night! They're-They're-They still have the same feelings they had for each other that they've always had but were always too _stubborn _to act on. But after being apart for so long, it's-it's only a matter of time before they admit their feelings to each other and I just don't want Sam to get hurt if she finds out."

"But…I don't understand why Sam _does _have to find out," Spencer said. "Couldn't you and Freddie both just agree to not tell her?"

"This is Sam," Carly sighed. "She'll find out one way or another. I just want her to know that it didn't mean anything and that I didn't do it to hurt her. I don't know _how _to tell her though, and that's why I need to talk to Freddie. Maybe he'll have some ideas. I asked him to come over here tonight so I could talk to him without Sam overhearing and-"

"Well, in case you guys were wondering, _Gorillas Gone Ape _was a _disaster _of a film," Freddie announced, walking into the apartment.

"Oh, good, you're here," Carly said, getting to her feet.

"I'm gonna go shave my bellybutton!" Spencer said, deciding to give the teens some privacy.

"So you have those pics for me to upload?" Freddie asked as Spencer ran off to his bedroom.

"Um, Freddie," Carly started. "I-I don't _really_ need any-"

"Hey, that weird paint stain on the wall that looks like a mouse eating a taco is still out there," Sam grinned, walking into the apartment.

"Sam!" Carly said, surprised. "What-What are you doing here?"

"I figured I'd swing by with Freddison," Sam shrugged. She looked over at the muted T.V. "Whoa, did Juanita find out about the barber yet?"

"So you have the pictures?" Freddie asked Carly.

"I-Yeah," Carly sighed. "Yeah, they're, um, upstairs on my Pearpad."

"Alright, I should be done in a sec," Freddie told her. "I learned this new technique for uploading pictures that takes about ten seconds off of the download time and-"

"Ugh, it's like there's a hammer slamming into my ears," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

Freddie gave her a smirk as he set off upstairs.

"Um…so," Carly said as Sam kicked off her shoes. "You-You wanna spend the night here again?"

"I might as well," Sam shrugged. "You don't care, do you?"

"No," Carly said. "How were the movies?"

"Nice," Sam said, smiling. Carly's stomach clenched as she recalled how that was the same smile Sam had used when she had come over after her and Freddie's first date over a year ago to tell her all about it. "Hey, um…well, it's kind of stupid but…"  
She looked over at the stairs to make sure Freddie was out of earshot.

"So we were gonna play some Meat Golf today, but then we realized we couldn't because the butchers was closed. Hey, don't you think that's kind of stupid? Why don't they have twenty-four hour butchers? What if I want a salami at four in the morning?" Sam said. "Anyway, though, I suggested that we play tomorrow instead and he said…he said 'it's a date'."

Carly's eyes widened. "Oh…"

"I told you, it was stupid," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "It's an _expression_. He wasn't _actually _asking me on a date. I mean…God, I can't believe I-Whatever…I need to stop acting like some sort of idiot chick, you got any ham?"

"Y-Yeah," Carly nodded. "In the fridge."  
"You okay?" Sam asked as she stepped into the kitchen. "You look a little pale. Paler than usual, that is."

"Yeah, just…just…I left something upstairs," Carly said. "I'll be right back."

"Take your time," Sam said as she took the plate of ham from the fridge and stared at it as though it was made of gold. "I'll be plenty entertained down here…"

Carly hurried upstairs after Freddie, she couldn't put it off any longer.

She had to talk to him before Sam wound up getting hurt.


	7. Chapter 7

Freddie stood by his empty tech cart in the iCarly studio, marveling at how empty it was.

_I'll have to bring all my equipment over tomorrow if we're really gonna start up iCarly again,_ he thought to himself.

He couldn't find Carly's Pearpad with her Italy pictures on them, but he wanted to take a moment to just look around the studio he hadn't been inside of for almost a year (he avoided coming up here while the girls had been away, it had too many memories).

Suddenly, though, he heard footsteps in the hall and a second later Carly appeared.

"Hey," he said as she stepped into the studio. "Your Pearpad's not up here. I looked around but I couldn't find it."

"I know, it's downstairs in my bag," Carly said slowly.

"Huh?" Freddie said, confused. "Then why'd you send me up here?"

"Because," Carly said, taking a deep breath. "We need to talk."

"Talk?" Freddie frowned. "Well why couldn't we just-"

"I-I don't want Sam to overhear us," Carly said.

"Why?" Freddie said. "Is everything okay?"

Carly bit the corner of her lip. "I don't know what's going on between you guys…but there's something."

Freddie opened his mouth to argue, but Carly cut him off.

"Freddie, you know it's true," she said firmly. "I know you guys are both slow with the whole feelings thing, but it's clear to me that you guys still have a-a spark between you."  
_Was it that obvious_? Freddie thought.

"And I'm happy for you guys," Carly said. "I-I hope you two manage to both suck it up and figure out your feelings before we turn thirty or something."

Freddie chuckled. "You make us sound like children, Carly."

Carly raised an eyebrow. "Last time before you two got together we all got locked in a mental hospital!"

"Okay…fair point," Freddie said. "Look, we'll get it sorted out. I don't even know if Sam wants to go down the whole 'relationship' road again. She might just want to focus on getting used to being back in Seattle for awhile."

"Yes, well..." Carly said, shifting uncomfortably. "Either way, I still need to talk to you. Freddie, do-do you remember the night I left for Italy? You were up here packing up your tech stuff and-and I came up here and we-I-I kissed you."

Freddie's eyes widened. He had never told anybody about that kiss. It was something that he had tried to avoid thinking about since it had happened.

He didn't think Carly had meant anything by it. It had been made clear that she felt only platonically towards him years ago. But still, her kiss wasn't the one who he thought about late at night when he couldn't fall asleep.

Freddie remembered the day Carly had left for Italy, the day she had kissed him, he had already been preoccupied in the romance department. For just a few hours before everything had happened, Sam had called him.

He didn't know what in the world had gotten over him, but when Sam had said she needed to talk to him, he let the question that had been on his mind for quite some time slip out.

"_You want to get back together?"_

The second the words had left his mouth he wanted to smack himself in the face. What kind of moron asked their ex-girlfriend if they wanted to get back together over the _phone_?

Besides, it had been less than a year since they broke up; he didn't know if he was ready to give their relationship and more importantly, he didn't know if _she _was ready. Maybe they still needed some time apart to figure out if they were really meant to be or if they should just try and forget about their brief relationship all together.

So he had changed the subject quickly, planning on giving this topic much more thought later on.

But it had turned out that the answer to his conundrum came sooner than he thought.

That night when Carly kissed him, he realized something; he _needed _Sam.

Carly's kiss had been just that; a kiss. It was plain, simple and dull, to say the least. It was nothing like Sam's kisses, which left his head spinning and his lips yearning for more every time.

And it was at that moment that it clicked for him. No one would ever be able to make him feel the same way from a little kiss other than Sam. Sam was the only one for him, he was in _love _with her.

He had been so proud of himself for coming up with that realization on his own that he had even thrown his hands up in victory as him and Carly left the studio.

That night he had planned to go talk to Sam; to tell her that he _did _want them to get back together because he _loved _her.

But when he tried to find Sam, she had already gone, and Freddie had feared he had lost her forever…

"Freddie," Carly said, snapping Freddie out of his thoughts. "Do you remember the-"

"Yes," Freddie said at once. "But-But what about it? It-It was just a goodbye, right? _Right_?"

"Right," Carly said quickly. "I-I don't know why I kissed you like that, I'm sorry-"

"You don't have to apologize," Freddie sighed. "Look…it was a crazy night. You had just found out you were about to leave the country in less than an hour. No one was thinking clearly. You kissed me, Spencer's squirrel video camera went up in flams, Sam went to L.A…It was just-just something that happened. We obviously don't have feelings for each other, so no harm done."

"I-Yeah," Carly agreed. "No harm done. But I'm just hoping Sam will see it the same way…"  
Freddie frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well Freddie, we have to tell her," Carly said.

"No!" Freddie said firmly. "No, we _don't_."

"But-"

"Carly, if-if we were to tell Sam about us kissing, even though it meant nothing, it would wreck anything that we've gotten back between us," Freddie said.

"But if we don't, we're lying to our best friend," Carly pointed out.

"It's not lying," Freddie said. "It's just not telling her. Carly, what good is it going to do for Sam to know about the kiss?"

"Well…"

"None. It's not going to do _any _good," Freddie said. "But it will hurt her. It could wreck your friendship with her and my, well, whatever it is I have with her right now."

Carly didn't reply.

"I know you're just trying to be honest with her, but…but why would you want to mess everything up when it's not necessary?" Freddie said gently.

"But if she finds out she's going to be so mad at us for the kiss _and _for hiding it from her," Carly sighed.

"If I don't tell her and you don't tell her…she'll never find out," Freddie said slowly. "Look. I-I don't like keeping things from Sam. I-I lo-I care about her a lot. But that's why I don't think we should tell her. It's just going to do more harm than good."

Carly nodded reluctantly. "I guess you're right…There _is _no real reason for her to know."

"Exactly," Freddie said. "Trust me, it would just mess everything up."


	8. Chapter 8

"I can't believe you're making me do this," Sam mumbled as she sat with Carly in the front office of Ridgeway High School.

"Sam, you have to come back to school," Carly said.

"I _was_ in school!" Sam defended. "Online school! Where I never had to get out of bed or put on pants to go!"

"Yeah, and I took the liberty of looking at your online school record," Carly said.

Sam gasped in mock offense. "Those are_ private_!"

"Yeah, just like Spencer's itch problem was private," Carly chuckled. "But that didn't stop you from blabbing about it on the Internet two years ago. Anyway, I saw that in the past month, you've missed three assignments, two quizzes and some sort of project about kangaroo habitats. School is too important for you to just blow off like that, so you're coming back where Freddie and I can make sure you at least do _some _of your work."

"I was getting to that kangaroo project!" Sam said. "I was gonna go to the zoo today."

"Right," Carly said, rolling her eyes. "Come on, you can't tell me you didn't miss Ridgeway a _little_."

"Yeah, I really missed Ms. Brigg's pointy boobs and that weird lunch lady who claims to see faces in the tuna fish," Sam smirked.

"It's our senior year, Sam," Carly pointed out. "There's a ton of fun stuff too. Prom, our senior trip, graduation… You don't get all that with online school. Besides, Gibby told me yesterday that they put in a new vending machine by the art room. One with extra-stuffed Fat Cakes."

"Extra-stuffed?" Sam said, perking up.

"That's right…double the chemicals," Carly grinned.

"Well…I-I guess since you already dragged me down here," Sam mumbled.

"Alright ladies, everything is all set," Principal Franklin said, coming out of the principal's office. "Here are your schedules. Welcome back; glad to see you here at Ridgeway again."  
"Thanks, Principal Franklin," Carly smiled. "We're glad to be back too."

"Yeah, Ted, the place doesn't look half bad," Sam said.

Principal Franklin raised an eyebrow.

"Er…I mean Principal Franklin," Sam corrected.

"Thank you," Principal Franklin said. "Now I assume you girls remember where everything is and don't need an office assistant to show you around, yes?"

"Yes, we remember," Carly chuckled.

"Good," Principal Franklin. "Then you should both go off to class. First period started ten minutes."  
"Um, actually I forgot where all the classrooms are," Sam said. "Any chance of that office aid showing us around so we don't have to go to-"

"Come on," Carly said, grabbing Sam's wrist and pulling her out of the office.

…..

"-And then we found out the rat was _pregnant_, so then we _had _to close down the restaurant," Gibby said that afternoon as the four teens sat in the cafeteria. "So that's why I had to shut down Gibby's."

"Um…no one asked," Carly frowned.

"Oh, I see," Gibby said, offended. "No one cares about the restaurant that a seventeen-year old boy started on his own, but you all can't get enough the video of the monkey juggling on a unicycle."

"Because _that's _cool," Sam said, popping a few tater tots into her mouth. "You're not."

"So last night I was looking over the iCarly site," Freddie said before Gibby could reply. "And I think I can have everything ready for us to do our first show back by next week."

"Awesome!" Carly said. "We should start letting everyone know we're back so we can make sure we have a good audience."

"Definitely, I think a lot of people will be really excited," Freddie said. "While you guys were gone, people kept coming up to Gib and me asking when the show was coming back."

"This is so exciting!" Carly beamed. "I've been going through some of the old props we have stored down in Spencer's storage unit. We can bring back all of the old skits! The Idiot Farm Girl, Random Dancing, What's Gibby Sitting On-"

"Yes!" Gibby cheered as the bell rang to end lunch. "I loved that!"

"Hey, Sam! Those were my tater tots!" Freddie exclaimed as Sam grabbed the tots off of his tray as the four stood up.

"Lunch is over and you didn't eat them," Sam said simply. "You had thirty minutes. This is your own fault. Besides, you were just gonna throw them away."  
"That didn't mean I wanted them swiped off my plate!"

"Well too bad!" Sam smirked. "That's what you got!"

"Sam! Give me back my tots!" Freddie said as he chased after Sam.

Carly couldn't help but laugh as she watched her two friends.

_Freddie's right, _she realized. _There's no point in messing all this up. Not when we've been missing it for so long._

…

Later that evening, Freddie walked across the hall to the Shay's apartment and let himself in.

Sam was sitting on the couch, playing on her phone as she ate one of the many extra-stuffed Fat Cakes she had gotten from the vending machine at school that day.

"Hey," Freddie greeted her, smiling as he noticed she had cream on the corner of her lip. "You-You've got a little something…"

"Oh," Sam said, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. "So what are you doing here?"

"Nothing really," Freddie shrugged. "You?"

"Same," Sam grinned. "I was just texting Cat to see how everything was going in L.A. Apparently her and her Nona were babysitting some kid who pretended to be a cow the whole time."

"That's…_odd_," Freddie frowned.

"Eh, not the weirdest kid that's ever been there," Sam said as Freddie sat down next to her. "Hey, weren't you and I supposed to be playing Meat Golf today? Don't tell me you forgot, Fredward."

"Who said I forgot?" Freddie asked, opening his bag and pulling out a large container of meatballs. "I just stopped by the butchers."

"Nice!" Sam said approvingly. "Let's do this then, before Carly and Spencer get back and yell at us for rolling meat around on their floor."

"Alright, I putt first," Freddie said, grabbing the two conveniently placed golf clubs by the coat rack and tossing one to Sam.

"You putt second," Sam corrected, pushing the coffee table out of the way. "Nice try, though."

Freddie watched as Sam set down one of the meatballs, her face contorted in deep concentration. He was always amused by how seriously she took the game.

"First hole will be underneath the kitchen table," Sam decided, preparing to take her shot. "That should be an easy enough start for even your skill level."

Meat Golf had always been their thing. Carly claimed the game was disgusting and unsanitary, and Freddie was sort of glad she would always just leave the two of them to play.

Sam putted the meatball, and it rolled straight underneath the table.

"Yeah!" Sam cheered, throwing her hands in the air in celebration. "Hole-in-one on my first try! I've still got it! I'm still the Meat Golf champion!"

_God…_Freddie thought to himself as he watched her jump up and down, her face lit up with her smile. _She's beautiful…just like she's always been._

He bit the corner of his lip, deep in debate with himself. _Don't think about that now! _He told himself firmly. _Don't think about how perfect she looks…you can't go down that road yet. Not right after she just got back home. She didn't leave L.A. just so you could throw yourself at her, after all. _

But then again…who was to say Sam _didn't_?

_She didn't know Carly was going to be home…_Freddie realized. _She came back thinking it was just gonna be me and Gibby and Spencer. Maybe-Maybe it's __**not **__so crazy of an idea. And-And Carly said she thought something was still between us…she's usually right about these things. Maybe I __**should **__do something now…Or-Or is that still too forward?_

Freddie wondered if this is what had been going through Sam's mind before she had kissed him that night at the lock-in. If it was, well, he understood why she had put herself in a mental hospital afterwards.

"Yo, nub!" Sam said loudly. "It's your turn. You gonna putt or stand there daydreaming?"

The words of his own advice that night echoed through his head. _You never know what might happen…_

"Sam?" Freddie said, placing his golf club down. "Can I talk to you?"


	9. Chapter 9

"What is it?" Sam asked, looking up at him.

"I, um," Freddie began nervously, running his fingers through his hair. "I just…remember-remember L.A.?"

"Yes," Sam frowned. "It hasn't even been a week since I left, Fredwash. I know I forgot to do iCarly stuff all the time, but my memory isn't _that _bad."

"I-I meant…you remember when I was there?" Freddie said. "And you were mad at Cat?"

"Er, sure, I guess," Sam nodded. "So? I'm not mad at her anymore."

"I know," Freddie said. "But-But when you were mad at her, you know, because she tricked me into coming to L.A. to get back at you for stealing her friend, do you remember that-that thing you said?"

"I said a lot of _things_," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "You're gonna have to be more specific."

"You said I was the only boy you've ever loved," Freddie said.

Sam's smirk suddenly vanished and she stared down at her feet. "Oh…right. Well-Well I told you, I was exaggerating to make a point. I mean I also said you were in love with me, didn't I? Come on, you know I was just trying to win my argument with Cat."

"So were you really exaggerating?" Freddie blurted out.

"Huh?"

"When you said I was the only guy you ever loved…" Freddie said. "That was-was just an exaggeration?"  
"What-What do you mean?" Sam asked, setting her golf club down.

"Sam, when you said I loved you back in L.A., that-that wasn't exactly, well…_inaccurate_."

Sam stared at him. "What?"

"I love you," Freddie repeated, wondering where this sudden surge of braveness had come from. He wasn't one to boldly confess his love like this.

But then again, Sam had always been able to make him do things he never thought he'd ever do.

"I realized it the night you left," Freddie continued. "And-And at first I thought with you gone, those feelings would just go away. But they didn't. If anything they got stronger."

Sam didn't reply, and he felt his heart sink.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly. "Sorry…you-you didn't want that sprung on you. I just-We can forget what I said. You-You just got home; you don't want to get into anything like this right now. Like you said, you haven't even been home a week and here I am-"

"It wasn't an exaggeration," Sam cut him off, causing his sentence to fall short.

"What now?" Freddie said slowly.

Sam shrugged. "You were the only guy I've ever been in love with…that's true."

Freddie blinked, not daring to believe what he was hearing.

"You want to know the real reason I-I came back to Seattle?" Sam asked.

"I thought it was because you missed it here."

"And I did," Sam nodded. "I missed Seattle and Spencer and Gibby and my mom…but-but there was one thing that made my decision. And that once thing…that one thing was, well, _you_."

"Me?" Freddie said weakly.

Sam gave him a small smile. "Well I guess after you came down to L.A., I realized how much I missed you. You grew on me."

"You came back to Seattle for _me_?" Freddie said again. "_Me_?"

"Er, would you like a mega horn to go scream that from the roof or something?" Sam frowned.

"Sorry," Freddie said quickly.

"Um, anyway…yeah," Sam said, her face so red now that it almost matched her shirt. "I guess…well…hey, um, what-what just happened?"

"I think…I _think _the two of us just-just _talked _about our feelings for each other," Freddie said.

"Oh," Sam said, biting the corner of her lip. "Huh…we-we usually don't do that, do we?"

"No, we usually just bottle everything up inside of us until one of us ends up in a mental hospital," Freddie said.  
Sam gave him a small smile. "You're still not gonna let me live that down?"

"Maybe one day," Freddie chuckled.

The two stood in the middle of the living room for a moment, silent.

"So, um…we-we established we both have feelings for each other then?" Sam said slowly.

"Er, yeah, I-I think that's what was established," Freddie nodded.

"Ah," Sam said quietly.

"Yeah," Freddie said lamely. "So, um, I-I guess this whole _talking about feelings _stuff Carly's been preaching at us for years is actually effective, huh?"

"Looks like it," Sam said. "So, what-what do we do now? I, um, I'm not used to things going this smoothly…"

"I know, it's…_weird_," Freddie grinned. He took a deep breath. "Well…we're two teenagers who jus realized they're in love with each other…I think the protocol would be for us to…go out and do something."

Sam laughed. "Yeah, I think that's what they taught us in school."

"Right," Freddie nodded.

The two were silent for another moment.

"But we _are _in the middle of a game of Meat golf," Sam said thoughtfully. "And I _am _winning…we could stay here and finish playing."  
Freddie grinned. "You know, I like that idea. It could be a-a first date thing."

"We've already been on a date before," Sam reminded him.

"Well a _new _first date then," Freddie corrected.

"Yeah, one where you lose," Sam smirked as he picked up his golf club.

"Nah," Freddie said softly. "I already won."

Sam looked down at her feet, but Freddie could see her cheeks flushing red.

"You know," she said, looking back up at him. "There _is _something else that would be, well, _appropriate_, now that we, well…had that _talk_."

"What?" Freddie asked, curious.

Sam stepped closer to him and stood on her toes and gave him a short kiss.

And that short kiss was all Freddie needed to appreciate how right it felt.

"Yeah, I-I guess I forgot that part," Freddie chuckled when they pulled apart. "Now stand back, Princess Puckett, so I can putt this meat."

….

Later that evening Carly returned home to her apartment with Spencer. The two of them had gone out to the movies after school and then grabbed dinner.

"Hey, I'm gonna go take a shower," Spencer said as Carly hung up her jacket. "That waiter spilled root beer all over my lap and it's still sticky."

"Well that's what you get for calling him a waitress," Carly smirked.

"Well his hair was so long!" Spencer defended.

"Yeah, well, you didn't appreciate being called a lady when you had long hair so don't go doing it to other dudes," Carly reminded him.

"I did not look like a lady!" Spencer snapped.

"Spencer…"

"Okay! Fine!" Spencer conceded. "Jeez, a guy goes through one bad hair phase and he can never live it down…"

Carly rolled her eyes as Spencer retreated into his bedroom.

She climbed upstairs to her room, figuring she'd start on the work for school she needed to catch up on.

When she entered her room, though, she saw Sam sitting on her bed, playing with her phone.

"Oh, hey Sam," Carly greeted her best friend. "I didn't know you were here. Hey, I'm just about to start our history homework if you want to work on it together. But I'm _not _going to just let you copy."

Sam looked up at her best friend, wearing the biggest smile she had seen in a long time.

"Um...what's up with you?" Carly laughed. "Oh, did you finally find those bacon-wrapped shrimp bites you've been hunting down?"

"Guess what happened today, Carls," Sam said, still beaming.

"What?" Carly asked curiously.

"Freddie and I…we, um…I kissed him!"

"You _what_?" Carly gasped.

"Yeah, and it's all thanks to that whole 'talk about your feelings' chiz you kept pushing on us," Sam nodded. "Who would've thought that junk would've actually worked."

"Okay, details. Now!" Carly exclaimed, sitting down on the bed next to her.

"Well we were playing Meat Golf," Sam began. "Which I won, by the way. Anyway, he said he wanted to ask me something and, well, one thing led to another, we realized we still loved each other, I kissed him, beat his butt in meat golf and then we went back to his place and chilled on his fire escape for a couple hours till his batty mom came home."

"You _chilled_?" Carly grinned.

"That means we made out, Carls," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, I got that," Carly nodded. "So what's this mean? Are you guys a couple again?"

"Yeah, I-I think so," Sam smiled.

"Oh my God," Carly said, hugging her best friend. "Sam, I'm so happy for you!"  
"Thanks," Sam said. "Oh, I need to get home now, though. I promised my mom I'd help her give Frothy a bath…I just wanted to tell you this in person. I mean, you're my best friend. I've got to keep you up-to-date on all this boy junk."  
Carly instantly felt a surge of guilt ripple through her. "Y-Yeah," she said.

"Anyway, I'll text you later," Sam said, getting up off the bed.

"Bye," Carly called after her.

Once Sam left the room, Carly fell back on her bed.

_See, it's a good thing you didn't tell Sam about the kiss…_she thought. _Look how perfectly everything is falling into place now! Sam and Freddie are back together and Sam's so happy…No, she can never find out. It's for the best. _

Still, though, that thought didn't cancel out the feeling in the pit of her stomach.


	10. Chapter 10

Carly paced back and forth in the iCarly studio, waiting for Sam, Freddie and Gibby to arrive. She had called a meeting to begin discussing their first iCarly show back together, and everybody was supposed to have been there five minutes ago.

_Don't tell me Sam and Freddie are gonna start blowing iCarly off again before it even starts_, Carly thought. But just then the door opened and Freddie and Gibby walked in.

"Hey," Freddie said. "Sorry we're late. Spencer was showing us his new roller-skates downstairs."

"Yes, I've already got 911 dialed into my phone," Carly said. "Where's Sam?"

"Oh, she just ran down to the lobby to get a Whaoo Punch from the lobby," Freddie told her.

"What? Was she thirsty after all the kissing you two were doing across the hall?" Carly smirked.

"Kissing?" Gibby frowned. "Why were you guys kissing?"

"Because Sam and I are a couple again, Gib," Freddie said proudly.

"What?" Gibby exclaimed. "Since when?"

"Er, about twenty-four hours ago," Freddie replied.

"Well way to keep me in the loop!" he snapped indignantly. "Jeez! You know, I always keep everybody up-to-date with my life! I send out weekly texts!"

"Yeah, we-we really appreciate those, Gib," Carly said as Sam walked into the room.

"Alright, we ready for a little iCarly planning?" Sam said happily, sipping her Whaoo Punch. "I promise not the fall asleep during this meeting…Or, I promise to _try _and not fall asleep during our first meeting."

"Missed you, baby," Freddie smiled as him and Sam sat down next to each other.

"Missed you too," Sam grinned, giving him a quick kiss.

"Are we gonna have to deal with this 'honeymoon phase' stuff all over again?" Carly asked jokingly as she rolled her eyes.

"Hey, we've been apart for over a year!" Freddie defended. "Let us honeymoon. We've earned the right!"

"Yeah, yeah," Carly chuckled. "So anyway, now that we're all here, let's start throwing around some ideas for our first show."

"I've got one," Gibby said at once.

"No," Sam said instantly.

"How can you shut down his idea without even hearing it?" Carly said.

"It's Gibby!" Sam scoffed. "When has a good idea ever come out of him?"

"Hey!" Gibby snapped. "I have tons of good ideas!"

"Well let's hear it, Gib," Freddie said before Sam could reply

"You that show that used to secretly film people on the street and show how they act in random situations that the producers would set up?" Gibby said.

"Oh yeah, I loved that show," Carly smiled. "_Secret Surveillance_!"

"Hey I watched that show too," Freddie said. "You know, before my mom would catch me watching a channel other than the knowledge station."

"Yeah, that show was hilarious," Sam nodded. "Remember when they had a guy having a huge break-up argument with his dog in the middle of some huge shopping mall?"  
"So you think we should do something like that for iCarly?" Carly said to Gibby. "That _is _a great idea, Gib!"

"Huh? Oh, no. I was gonna suggest that we just try to find that show on the vintage channel to watch during this meeting," Gibby said. "My _idea _is for us to get some melons and cat litter and-"

"Gibby, just-just stop while you're ahead," Freddie begged.

"We can set up hidden cameras someplace like the Groovy Smoothie or something!" Sam said enthusiastically. "And then the four of us can think up crazy things and see what people do!"

"Yeah, and I bet T-Bo will be all for it," Carly agreed. "I mean it will get him free advertising on our show."

"And I have a bunch of tiny cameras across the hall that will be _perfect _for us to use," Freddie added. "Man Gib, way to go. We should start giving you more credit."  
"Yeah…let's not get carried away," Sam said. "So great, we have something for the show! Is the meeting over?"  
"We need more than one thing, Sam," Carly said. "Why are you in such a rush to get out of here?"

"We sort of have reservations in an hour," Freddie admitted. "We-We made them before you called this meeting, though! So it's not like we're ditching this meeting or anything. We just might need to leave before it ends…"  
"Isn't that what ditching is?" Gibby pointed out.

"What? So you suddenly know the definitions of all the words?" Sam snapped.

"Okay, look, I'm glad you guys are back together, so I'm not gonna give you a hard time," Carly said quickly.

"Really?" Freddie said, surprised. "Wow, thanks Carls."

"Yeah, thanks," Same echoed.

"We can still get some serious planning done, though," Carly said. "If we don't get distracted. So Sam, go sit over there by Gibby?"

"Why?" Sam frowned.  
"Because we all know with you two _lovebirds _next to each other, you guys will be _quite _distracted," Carly said firmly. "So scoot!"

….

That evening after Sam and Freddie had left the iCarly meeting, the newly reunited couple was sitting in a small pizzeria at a candlelit table.

Sam couldn't take her eyes off of Freddie as they continued to talk over the large meat slam pizza in the middle of the table.

"So you both really got locked in a secret room in your house?" Freddie laughed as he took a bite of his pizza.

"Uh-huh," Sam grinned. "But hey, that was nothing compared to the time we had to babysit the world's _creepiest _doll."

"You babysat a _doll_?"  
"Yeah, some weird guy thought it was her daughter or something," Sam said. "You get a lot of strange people in L.A."

"Yeah, Seattle too," Freddie chuckled. " A few weeks ago, Gibby and I were at the mall getting churros and there was this lady who was _tanning _in the middle of the food court!"

"How do you even-"

"I don't know," Freddie said. "Ask Gibby. He got her number and now they meet every Saturday there to tan."

He reached across the table and gently took Sam's hand, tracing small circles on the back of her palm with his thumb, glad he no longer had to suppress the urge. "I know I've said it a million times, but I've really missed you."

Sam smiled, squeezing his hand. "I missed you too."

"I just…I just can't believe this moment is finally here," Freddie said. "You know how long I've wanted to do this? Finally be on a date with you? For like, ever!"

Sam beamed. "Easy there, tiger, play it cool."  
"Sorry," Freddie said. "Um, well…anyway, I-I know this is only our first date, or, well, second if we count the Meat Golf yesterday, but, um, I-I got you something."  
"Dude," Sam frowned. "Why'd you do that? I don't have anything for you!"

"It's okay," Freddie said quickly. "I just wanted to."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small locket.

"Whoa," Sam said softly, taking the necklace. "It-It's beautiful."

"Open it," Freddie said.  
Sam gently opened it up, revealing a picture of her and Freddie from before Sam had left for L.A. They were sitting at the Groovy Smoothie, laughing as they sipped their smoothies, both looking like the happiest people in the room.

"I wanted to give you this so you'll always remember how happy we make each other when we're together," Freddie told her.

Sam silently placed the necklace around her neck and then leaned over and kissed him, tasting the pizza on his lips.

"It's perfect," she said when they pulled apart. "Thank you."


	11. Chapter 11

Freddie walked into the Shay's apartment the next day, happy to find his girlfriend lounging on the couch, talking on the phone as she absentmindedly twirled a lock of her blonde hair around her finger.

"Yeah…yeah we'll see, Cat," Sam said, smiling up at Freddie as he closed the door behind him. "Maybe. What? No! For the love of ham, will you stop following David Schwimmer all around L.A.? You're gonna get another restraining order! I have to go now. I'll talk to you later, Cat."

"Hey, baby," Freddie chuckled, leaning down to give her a quick kiss. "Talking to Cat?"

"No, I was talking to Rhonda, but I just _called _her Cat," Sam smirked, rolling her eyes.  
"You know a Rhonda?"

"Unbelievable," Sam said, shaking her head. "Yes, I was talking to Cat! She wants me to come down to L.A. next month and visit."

"Oh, sounds fun," Freddie said, sitting down next to her. "What for?"

"For Yay Day," Sam replied, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Er…what?"

"It's a holiday Cat made up," Sam explained. "See, she really likes buying people presents and being all festive so she decided to make a day dedicated to all that chiz. It actually wound up being pretty cool last year."  
She bit the corner of her lip thoughtfully. "Actually," she continued. "Cat-Cat suggested that I bring you and Carly down with me to celebrate too."

"Really?" Freddie said.

"Yeah, um, I mentioned that we got back together when I was talking to her," Sam nodded. "But, um…you-you probably wouldn't want to. I mean, we've been back together for, what, two days? What couple plans to go on a trip after only two days? Even if they do bring a third person it's still weird to just-"

"Sam, I-I think it's a great idea," Freddie cut her off.

"You-You do?" Sam frowned.

"Of course," Freddie said. "Sam, we may have just gotten back together, but we're not exactly _new _at this whole couple thing. I guess it would be pretty weird to go to L.A. with someone you just started dating if we were any other couple, but we're _not _any other couple. We're us. I think it would be fun for us to go down to L.A. for…was it _Yay Day_?"

Sam grinned. "You really want to?"

"Let's see, do I _want _to go to one of the coolest cities in the world with my super hot girlfriend?" Freddie said in mock thought. "Hmm, that's a _tough _one. Yes! Yes, I want to go!"

"Great," Sam laughed. "I'll tell Cat then. Oh, and I'll run it by Carly too."  
"Where _is _Carly?" Freddie asked. "I thought we were doing iCarly stuff today. I brought those tiny cameras over for us to get ready to use in that hidden camera bit Gibby came up with yesterday."

"Her and Spencer went to pick up some cupcakes for us all to have," Sam said. "I was gonna go with them, but, well, let's face it. If I did they would all be gone by the time we got back."  
"Fair point," Freddie chuckled. "Well when are they gonna be back?"

"I dunno," Sam shrugged. "They just left a few minutes before you got here. They'll probably be gone awhile."

"So what you're saying is we have an empty apartment to ourselves?" Freddie said slowly.

"Yeah…" Sam said, scooting closer to him. "We should probably stop talking and start taking advantage of that."

…

"See, these things are tiny enough for us to put around the Groovy Smoothie without anybody even noticing them," Freddie said as him and Carly stood in the studio a few hours later. "They use a really small type of memory chip that-"

"Um, Freddie," Carly said. "No offense, but Sam and I don't really _care _about how they work as long as they _do _work."

"Took the words right out of my mouth, Carls," Sam grinned proudly.

"Well you guys need to know how they work because we _all _need to set them up when we're ready to film," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "Now this button right here starts recording. See?" He pushed the button and a small, red light came on. "And then when you want to see the footage you connect it to a phone or a laptop and view it. Simple."  
"So are we gonna go set them up at the Groovy Smoothie now?" Sam asked. "Because I could go for a smoothie…"

"You just had four cupcakes," Carly said, amused.

"Yes, and now I'm _thirsty_," Sam said.

"We can't set them up yet, they all have old footage on them," Freddie said.

"Can't we record over them?" Carly asked.

"No!" Freddie said at once.

The girls raised an eyebrow.

"While-While you were gone Gibby and I reenacted the Battle of Panthatar and recorded it one some of these cameras," Freddie reluctantly admitted, causing Sam and Carly to both snort with laughter.

"Just help me start saving the old footage from these things," Freddie said, rolling his eyes as he set the camera he had been demonstrating with down on his tech cart.

"Alright, alright," Carly said.

"Yeah, but since we're not getting smoothies, I'm gonna go grab some iced tea," Sam said. "You guys want any?"

"Yeah," Carly nodded.

"Sure," Freddie smiled, leaning down to kiss Sam. "Don't be too long, though."

"Nub," Sam said, rolling her eyes, though Carly noticed her cheeks were flushing.

Again, her stomach gave a guilty lurch.

"Man," Freddie sighed happily as Sam hurried out of the studio. "She is _great_. Did she tell you about the L.A. trip yet?"

"L.A. trip?" Carly said slowly. "You guys are going to _L.A. _together?"

"Yeah, that's the plan," Freddie nodded. "You're invited too, don't worry. See, that Cat girl made up this holiday called Yay Day and she wants Sam to come down and celebrate it with her and-"

"Freddie, we have to tell her!" Carly blurted out before she could stop herself.

"Tell who what?" Freddie frowned. "Cat?"

"No! Sam!" Carly exclaimed. "We-We have to tell her that we kissed."

Freddie's eyes widened. "Carly…I thought we agreed that-"

"Well I still feel so _guilty_, ever since you two got back together," Carly sighed. "I-I feel _horrible_! We're keeping something so big from her! If we just tell her-"

"What? You think that will do any good?" Freddie snapped. "Carly, we've been over this! We tell Sam and she'll hate us both! It's not going to do anything but mess everything up. We're all finally together again after a whole year. By telling Sam you would mess up your friendship with her and any chance of iCarly restarting! All so _you _can clear your conscience!"

Carly crossed her arms. "You just don't want to say anything to Sam about us kissing because _you _don't want her to break up with you!"

Freddie didn't reply.

"I-I'm sorry," Carly said, her temper fading away. "I-I shouldn't have said that. You're right. I _do _want to tell Sam so I can start feeling less guilty about it. I mean it was my fault in the first place…I kissed you."

"It's both of our faults," Freddie said heavily. "Look, I'm sorry about what I said too. I just…I _don't _want to mess things up with Sam. I love her. That's why we can never tell her about the kiss. Don't you _see_? If we do then we'll probably wind up feeling even _worse _than we do about keeping it from her."  
"I-I hadn't though about that," Carly said slowly. She supposed she would feel worse if Sam hated her than she would if she kept this secret to herself. "I-Okay. We won't tell her about the kiss. Maybe my guilt will go away after a few days."

"Of course it will," Freddie said. "We both know that kiss meant nothing anyway so why keep dragging it up? You didn't do it to hurt Sam, so-so stop beating yourself up over it."

"Alright," Carly agreed. She gave Freddie a small smile. "Hey, why don't we go surprise Sam and take a trip down to the Groovy Smoothie like she wanted."

"Yeah, I could go for a Blueberry Blitz," Freddie nodded.

So Carly and Freddie walked out of the studio to find Sam, neither of them realizing the small, red 'record' light that Freddie had shown the girls on the miniature camera was still blinking on.


	12. Chapter 12

"So I'm thinking if the three of us work together, we can have the cameras cleared and ready in less than an hour," Freddie said as the three teens walked back into the iCarly studio, all sipping the smoothies they had just gotten.

"How long if only _two _of us work?" Sam asked, flopping down on the beanbag chair.

"Really?" Carly smirked. "We take you out for smoothies and you _still _don't want to work?"

"What can I say?" Sam said proudly. "I'm exceptionally lazy."

"Please, Sam?" Freddie said.

"Ugh, fine!" Sam moaned.

"Really? You're gonna work from a 'Please, Sam'?" Carly said. "Jeez, I said 'Please, Sam' about a half-dozen times when I tried to get you to help me to help vacuum up all the chip crumbs on my rug that _you _put there, but you didn't move an inch!"

"Guess I'm special," Freddie grinned happily as Sam got up.

"Eh, don't worry, Carls," Sam told her. "I just want to get this done with. Frednub's gonna take me to the zoo to watch them feed the lions when this is finished."

"I am?" Freddie said.

"You are," Sam smiled, giving him a quick peck.

"Wow…what a romantic date," Carly chuckled.

"Carly!" the three suddenly heard Spencer yell from downstairs. "Carly, I need help!"

"What happened?" Carly yelled down to her brother.

"I accidently glued my sunglasses to my face!"

"_How_?" Carly frowned.

"I don't know! I fell asleep and the next thing I knew my glasses were stuck to my face!"

"See, _this _is why he's not allowed to play with glue when he's tired," Carly sighed. "I better go take care of this. Can one of you help me? I need someone to distract him long enough for me to yank the glasses off."

"Yeah, I'll come," Freddie replied.

"Nice, make me do all the work while you go deal with Spencer," Sam said.

"Would _you _like to go deal with him?" Carly said. "You know what a baby is when it comes to getting things unstuck. He's gonna be impossible."

"Oh…good point," Sam said.

She watched Carly and Freddie hurry out of the studio the Spencer's aid.

"Alright, let's get this over with," Sam sighed. She looked over at Freddie's tech cart and spotted one of the cameras. "Might as well start with this one."  
She grabbed the camera and Freddie's laptop that was lying nearby and quickly hooked the devices up.

_I can't believe the nub is so concerned about saving his lame __**Galaxy Wars **__videos_, Sam thought to herself as she began to pull up the saved data from the camera. Then again…it _was _sort of cute.

She started going through the old videos, thinking she might watch a little bit of his battle reenactment so that she'd have some material to mock him with later. She was surprised, though, when she spotted a video that had been recorded that very day.

"What's this?" Sam said to herself. "What did we record today? Oh…Freddie must've forgotten to turn off the camera after he showed us how to work it. I'm not gonna bother to save that junk then. There's nothing good on-huh?"

Just as she was about to delete the video, she noticed a still frame of Carly and Freddie talking, both looking pretty serious.

_Wonder what was going on…_Sam thought curiously. She glanced over at the door. They were both bound to be gone for at least a few more minutes…

She quickly pressed the play button, anxious to see what Carly and Freddie had been talking about…

"_Freddie, we have to tell her!"_ Carly said on the screen. Sam raised an eyebrow. Carly seemed really distressed. Who could she have to tell something to? Carly hadn't mentioned anything like this to _her_…

"_Tell who what?"_ Freddie said back to Carly.

"Sam!" Carly had replied.

Sam frowned. _Okay…what's happening here? What do they have to tell me that they couldn't have just said-_

"_We have to tell her that we kissed!" _

Sam's eyes widened and she felt her jaw drop open as she instantly felt as though someone had slung her own butter sock into her gut.

"What?" Sam gasped, her voice barely audible as she paused the video. "_What_? They-They kissed? They _kissed _and they-they were going to _hide _it from me?"

She slowly got to her feet, her legs feeling as though they wouldn't support her body. Why had they kissed? _When _had the kissed? Was it recently? Did that _matter_?

She suddenly felt a new emotion.

Anger.

_Carly's my best friend…how could she do this to me_? Sam thought furiously. _And Freddie…So has all the stuff he's said to me just been a big lie? He kissed my best friend and couldn't even admit it to me!_

She suddenly felt something wet sliding down her face and it took her a moment to realize it was her tears.

"They kissed…" she said heavily, clenching her fists. "They kissed. And then they lied about it…"

_God, how long was Freddie gonna hide this? He was just gonna let me go through our whole relationship never telling me! How could he do this…How could he-_

"Well, that was easier than we thought," Carly announced brightly as her and Freddie returned to the studio.

"Yeah," Freddie said. "We just-Sam? Sam, are you okay?"

Sam glared at him as he rushed over to her.

"Sam, why-why are you-are you _crying?_" Freddie frowned, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Sam quickly shoved it off. "Don't _touch _me!" she snapped.

Freddie withdrew his hand at once, looking startled. "Sam?" he said softly.

"What's going on?" Carly asked, confused.

Sam turned to her. "What happened to no more secrets, huh Carly?"

Carly's eyes grew wide. "What-what are you-"

"You two kissed!" she yelled. "You _kissed _and you were just gonna keep it a secret from me forever!"

"Sam, no, you-you don't understand!" Freddie said, panicked.

"What don't I understand?" Sam said, crossing her arms. "_Did _you two kiss?"

"I-Yes! Yes, but-but it was a year ago! And-And you-we didn't want you to find out because it didn't mean anything and it would just hurt you!" Freddie exclaimed. "How-How _did _you find out?"

Sam grabbed the camera and threw it at him, hitting him square in the chest. "FYI, next time you kiss my best friend, don't put the evidence on video if you want to hide it."

"Sam, please," Freddie sighed. "I'm sorry. I-I should've told you. I just didn't think it-it _mattered _since it was so long ago. And-And we were doing so good together-"

"It doesn't _matter_?" Sam repeated, narrowing her eyes. "Of _course _it matters that you kissed my best friend!"

"Sam, _I _kissed _him_!" Carly said.

Sam stared at her. "_What_?"

"It-It was right before I was leaving for Italy," Carly explained shakily. "And-And I came up here to say goodbye to Freddie and-and-I kissed him."

"You kissed him?" Sam whispered. "Why?"

"I don't know, but it meant _nothing_, it-it was just a goodbye!" Carly said. "I regretted it the second it happened, but-but don't be mad at Freddie. He didn't initiate it and he only kept it from you because he didn't want you to be hurt, like he said. But-But Sam, I'm _serious _that kiss doesn't mean I ever had feelings for Freddie or that I have them now. I _don't_."  
But Sam kept glaring at her. "I bet he didn't pull away," she said, her voice softer, but icier. She looked back over at Freddie. "It takes two to kiss. And apparently two to hide the kiss."

"Baby," Freddie said desperately. "Please, I-I know you're angry, and you have every right to be-"

"You can't get out of this by_ rationalizing_ it," Sam spat at him.

"Sam," Carly said, on the verge of tears herself now. "Please…"

"You neither," Sam said coldly. She reached for the locket that Freddie had given her the day before and pulled it free, breaking the chain. She slapped it down in Freddie's hand.

"You two enjoy each other," Sam mumbled as she stormed out of the studio, determined not to let either of them see her cry.


	13. Chapter 13

"Oh my God…" Carly said shakily, pacing back and forth in the studio. "Oh my God…she _hates _us! She-Did you see her face? I've never seen her like that! Oh…my best friend hates me and it's all my fault. You were right, Freddie, her finding out did nothing but mess everything up!"

Freddie didn't reply. He simply stood, rooted to his spot, as he stared down at the heart-shaped locket Sam had slammed down into his hand.

He felt as though she had taken his real heart instead. Freddie couldn't believe this…it was over. Everything he had been dreaming of getting back with Sam, everything he had hoped for, gone. Shattered. Destroyed.

"She's never going to forgive us," Carly whispered. "This is all my fault…I-I wrecked everything! I-I lost my best friend, and you and Sam…Oh, God, Freddie I'm so sorry."

"It's not just your fault," Freddie said weakly. "Maybe if I had listened to you and-and we told Sam earlier to her face instead of having her find out like-like this…maybe she'd have reacted differently."

"That wouldn't have changed the fact that it had happened," Carly said, tears now falling from her face. "And-And I was the one who brought it up again today! If I hadn't then the camera would've never recorded us and Sam would've never found out!"

"She would've found out somehow," Freddie sighed. "She's Sam…God, I just-I just…I don't know. I don't know what to do. I-I love her. But I don't know if she'll even want to _look _at me ever again."

"Can we fix this?" Carly asked softly, wiping her eyes. "Is-Is there even a _chance_?"

"I don't know," Freddie said honestly. "I-I don't know where we could even begin…I've never seen Sam like that before. So mad, so upset, so…hurt."

"Me neither," Carly sighed. "Maybe-Maybe we should go and-and try to talk to her."

"Carly, she doesn't want to listen to anything we have to say," Freddie said.

"Well we have to try something!" Carly exclaimed. "We can't just let Sam walk away from us and never even _try _to make things better!"

"So what? You wanna just walk up to Sam and say 'Hey, Sam. We realize we just destroyed our friendship, but if you could talk to us for just two seconds we can fix everything right up again'?"

"I know she's not gonna forgive us now!" Carly snapped. "But if we can just_ explain _that the kiss meant nothing and _show _her how sorry we are _maybe _it will make Sam feel a bit less…_hateful _towards us and we can _keep _working on the issue! I know you don't want to just give up on you and Sam, Freddie. You _just _said you love her! So if you love her than you need to suck it up come with me to try and talk to her. If you don't then you just might lose her for good."

Freddie took a deep breath. "You're right…we've got to at least try. I don't want to lose her, Carly, I _don't_."

"Me neither," Carly said. "I just hope it's not too late."

….

An hour later Carly and Freddie stood outside of Sam's house, knocking on her door.

"Sam!" Freddie called desperately. "Sam, please open up! We want to talk to you!"

"Do you think she's home?" Carly asked, concerned. "What if she went somewhere else?"  
"The light's on in her room," Freddie said, still knocking hard on the door. "Sam! Sam, we're sorry! You have every right to hate us! But we need to take to you! Please!"

"We have to get in there," Carly said to Freddie. "Maybe there's a spare key or something…"  
"Nah, there isn't," Freddie said. "Do you have a hair pin?"

"Here," Carly said, reaching into her bag and handing Freddie a bobby pin. "What are you going to do?"

"Pick the lock," Freddie said simply as he kneeled down by the doorknob.

"You don't know how to pick locks!" Carly said, exasperated. "Sam does! And seeing as she's not here…"

"She showed me how to once," Freddie said. "A couple years ago…when we were dating. I can't do as fast as her but…there."

He stood up and opened the door. "Let's go."

Carly and Freddie started upstairs to Sam's room. Her door was open a crack and the two exchanged nervous looks before Freddie gently pushed the door open.

Sam, who had been jamming clothes into a large suitcase, jumped as she turned towards the door.

Carly and Freddie could tell she had been crying, but the second she caught sight of them, her eyes narrowed.

"Get out!" she snapped.

"Sam," Freddie said. "Please. Talk to us."

"What's there to talk about?" Sam said coldly as she crammed a pair of boots into her bag. "You two kissed and then hid it from me for a whole year. We don't need to talk. I understand _perfectly_."

"Sam, that kiss meant _nothing_," Carly said. "It-It was like me kissing my brother!"

"Weird, I never see you kiss Spencer," Sam sneered.

"I just meant-It wasn't a romantic kiss!" Carly said. "Not in the slightest! I don't have feelings for Freddie and he doesn't have feelings for me. It meant _nothing. _The only person he _does _have feelings for is _you. _He _loves _you!"

Sam didn't reply as she continued to shove her clothes away.

"We didn't keep it from you because we wanted to hurt you in any way," Freddie said. "In fact that's the exact reason we _did _keep it from you; so we wouldn't hurt you. I mean we figured what good would it do to tell you something that had absolutely no meaning to it?"

Again, Sam didn't reply.  
"Sam?" Carly said softly. "What-What are you doing?"  
"Packing," Sam said simply.

"Er…what for?" Freddie frowned.

"For L.A.," Sam said, still glaring at both of them.

"I thought you weren't planning on visiting Cat until next month," Freddie pointed out.

"I'm not going to L.A. to visit," Sam said harshly. "I'm going back there. For good."

"What?" Freddie exclaimed.

"It was obviously a mistake for me to come here," Sam said. "I thought I'd be coming back to friends…but _clearly _all my real friends are in L.A."

"Sam! That's not true!" Freddie said loudly.

"_We're _your friends, Sam!" Carly said.

"Friends don't keep secrets from friends," Sam said. "Your words, Carly. Not mine."


	14. Chapter 14

Carly and Freddie stood there, silent, as the watched Sam continued to pack her bag. Carly felt as though Sam had just hurled an enormous weight at her and Freddie thought his legs were about to give out from under him.

"Sam," he said weakly. "Sam, you-you can't leave again."

"Watch me," Sam said, narrowing her eyes.

"But you-"

"In L.A., I didn't have to worry about people keeping things like this from me," Sam snapped. "Cat never lied to me about this kind of stuff!"

"Sam, we're _sorry_!" Freddie said. "We _know _it was wrong. It was a _mistake_, a huge one!"

"Sorry doesn't change the fact that you hid this from me for over a year!" Sam said harshly.

"Yeah, and neither will running away again!" Freddie exclaimed before he could stop himself.

Sam glared at him as she zipped up her bag. "I'm not running away."

"Yes you are!" Freddie said. "You're running back to L.A. because you don't want to stay here and deal with something that you don't want to! Well you know what, Sam? I was stupid enough to let you do that once but I'm not gonna make the same mistake twice."

"Sam, please," Carly said. "Let's just _talk _about this. You don't need to leave and-"

"It's too late to talk!" Sam said angrily.

"Sam, no it's not, we can still fix this!" Freddie said desperately. "I-I _love_ you."

For a moment, Freddie thought he saw Sam's face soften, but the next second her scowl had returned. She picked up her bag. "Yeah, you love me alright," she said, her voice dripping in sarcasm. "Now get out of my way."

"Sam, it-you can't leave!" Freddie said again as Sam stormed past him.

Carly and Freddie followed her at once as she headed out of the house and down to the curb where her bike was parked.

"Sam, it-it's about to _pour_!" Carly said, looking up at the dark sky. "You can't leave; you'll get caught in the middle of the storm."

"Well then that will work out perfectly for you two," Sam said happily. "You'll be able to kiss in peace!"

"For the tenth time, it wasn't like that!" Freddie said loudly as Sam grabbed her helmet. "And you're _not _leaving, Sam! I'm not losing you again!"

"Try and stop me," Sam snapped as she hopped onto the bike.

Freddie took a deep breath, feeling braver and more determined than he ever had in his whole life.

"Fine," he said, taking out his keys. "If that's how you want to be…"

And before she could stop him Freddie slashed the front tire of her bike, the air spurting free.

Carly gasped.

Sam looked livid.

Even _Freddie _was surprised by his own daring.

"What did you _do_?" Sam cried, stepping off the bike to inspect the bike. "You-You just _slashed _my tire!"

"I'll pay for the replacement," Freddie said. "But Sam, we _need _to fix this."

"The only thing _you _need to do is shell out two hundred bucks for my tire!"

"_After _we talk!"

"Fine!" Sam said. "Fine! We'll talk! Let's talk about how you and Carly kissed and then how you hid it from me! Where you _never_ going to tell me? All those things you said to me about us being such a _strong _couple…those were _lies_! What kind of strong couple lies about something like this?"

"You're right, but-"

"And _you_," Sam said, turning to Carly. "You're supposed to be my best friend, yet you couldn't even _tell _me you kissed Freddie? Even after all that stuff you threw at me! You found I kissed Freddie when we were only _fourteen _and you threw a fit! And then you go and do the same thing, only this time after I've _dated _him, and you think it's just _fine_?"

"I know, it's-" Carly started.

Sam turned back to Freddie. "There. We talked. Now give me the money for my bike so I can get out of here."

"You're not running off to L.A.!" Freddie said once again.

"You can't tell me what to do!"

"Sam, you-you can't make such a rash decision like this!" Freddie exclaimed. "Have-Have you even _told _Cat you're coming?"

"She'll find out when I get there!" Sam replied.

"And what about school? Are you just not gonna graduate?" Freddie continued, crossing his arms. "They're not gonna let you go back to online school, Sam. Not with your record from last time."

"There's schools in L.A.!"

"What about your mom?"

"What about her?" Sam retorted. "I left her a note!"

"What about money?" Freddie went on. "For food during your trip and gas and emergencies? I watched you pack, Sam, you left your phone charger, wallet and ID in your room. What if something happens to you?"

"Listen," Sam said, her voice scary quiet. "You have ten seconds to give me my money before I rearrange your face!"  
"Sam, you're _angry_," Freddie said calmly. "And-And you have every right to be. But just because you're angry or-or hurt doesn't mean you should just move away without even addressing the issue."  
"He's right," Carly said. "Sam, if it were me right now…I'd probably be acting the same exact way. But don't you see, if you run away nothing's going to get fixed! You're just gonna sit down in L.A. _festering _in all these emotions and-and it's not gonna be good for you! At least hear us out, _please_."

"I don't want to-"

"So that's it? You want to just give all this up?" Freddie said. "You want to give up everything you have here because of this? You want to just leave Spencer and Gibby and your mom? You want to leave Ridgeway? You want to leave your whole _life _behind? You want to leave your _best friend _who you've been missing for over a _year _behind? You want to leave _us _behind?"  
Sam said nothing.  
"If you do," Freddie said, reaching into his wallet and pulling out a few bills. "Fine. Here's your money. But if you want to at least _try _and see if what we have to say can make you feel any different, then-then you need to do that. But just know, Sam, running away from your problems isn't the answer. You saw what actually talking about these things could do once before. So it's up to you."

Sam continued to stare at the two for several moments as Carly and Freddie waited anxiously for her response.

Finally, after nearly five minutes, Sam took off her helmet.

"We'll talk," she said, her voice still poisonous. "You guys have ten minutes."


	15. Chapter 15

Sam, Freddie and Carly retreated back into Sam's house. Sam slammed the door shut and stormed over to the couch where she threw her bag down as she sat. She turned to Carly and Freddie, who were still standing nervously by the front door.

"So…you two wanted to talk," Sam snapped. "So do it!"

"Right," Freddie said, exchanging looks with Carly. "Um, well…Sam, I-I know we've told you this a million times already, but that kiss…it meant nothing."

"Then why did it happen?" Sam frowned. "If you two didn't have feelings for each other…why'd you kiss in the first place?"

"It was a mistake," Carly said. "A stupid, stupid mistake. I-I was just confused about everything. I-I didn't know if I was doing the right thing by going to Italy and I-I didn't know when I would see everybody again and-and I was just thinking how I was going to tell Freddie goodbye and thank him for everything he's done for me over the years, but I-I didn't know how I to make sure he got that message so-so I thought if I kissed him, he'd know how much he meant to me. As a friend; as one of my closest _friends_. It was dumb, I know, and-and I wasn't even _thinking _about how it would effect you because, well, my brain was just so wonked out and-and it was a _mistake_."

"And after the kiss, Sam, that-that's when I knew how I _really _felt about you," Freddie said. "Because kissing Carly…it was just a kiss. But with you…it was always so much more. And I realized that-that I wouldn't have felt that way if I didn't love you."

Sam said nothing, and Carly and Freddie could tell that she was still angry. Still, though, Freddie thought he saw her scowl fade ever so slightly. Though that could've been his imagination.

"It really, _really _meant nothing," Carly said again.

"Then why did you hide it for over a year?" Sam demanded. "Why did I have to find out on my own if it was no big deal?"

"We-We just didn't-" Freddie started.

"I talked to you all the time when we left," Sam said to Carly. "I called you when I got to L.A. and-and when I moved in with Cat and-and I told you about online school and asked you about Italy and-and you never mentioned it. Not once."

"I-I just didn't know how to bring it up," Carly said heavily.

"And _you_," Sam said, looking to Freddie. "I actually _saw _you. That week we spent in L.A. together…you didn't say anything to me."

"Sam, it was the first time I saw you in _months_!" Freddie defended. "I didn't-I didn't want to have us get into an argument before I-I could even tell you how much I missed you."

Sam was silent.

"And that was selfish of me," Freddie continued. "Keeping this from you…it's been selfish. We-We were both concerned about us not making sure you weren't mad at us. And I-I didn't want to risk ruining any chance we had of getting back together again by telling you. And-And that's why _I _convinced Carly not to tell you, Sam. She _wanted _to. When we all got back, she wanted to talk to you and _I _told her we shouldn't."

Sam's eyes widened. "You-You were going to tell me?" she said softly to Carly.

Carly slowly nodded. "But-But I'm still as much at fault as Freddie. Like you said…I had my chance to tell you last year. And I chickened out."

Just then Freddie's phone beeped.

"Well, that's ten minutes," Freddie announced to Sam.

Sam didn't move.

"So what do you want to do?" Freddie said in a voice barely louder than a whisper. "Do you want to leave?"

Sam bit the corner of her lip. She finally spoke after a few moments of silence.

"Let's give it another ten minutes."

…..

And so for nearly two hours, Sam, Freddie and Carly talked. Carly and Freddie told Sam how truly sorry they were, how it was never _ever _their intention to hurt her, and how, ironically, they thought by keeping the kiss from her, they were doing just the opposite.

And reluctantly, and very briefly, Sam told the two of them how crushed she had felt watching the video.

Freddie knew how hard it had to be for Sam to discuss her feelings like that. She was Sam, after all. But as she talked, Freddie could see her slowly beginning to calm down, letting the anger leave her body.

Soon, though, it seemed that nobody had anything left to say. So Carly and Freddie looked at Sam, not knowing what to expect.

"Sam?" Carly said, ready to ask the question that her and Freddie were both anxious to find the answer to. "Do you think you can forgive us? After hearing how the kiss meant nothing, and how we didn't want to hurt you and how sorry we are?"

Freddie held his breath as Sam pondered this. He could feel his heart beating out of his chest and his mouth was dry.

"I guess…I guess you guys were in one of those Catch 23 decisions we learned about in English the other day," Sam finally said.

"Er, Catch 22," Freddie corrected before he could stop himself, earning him an elbow in the ribs from Carly. "Er…sorry."

"If you told me…I'd be mad," Sam continued. "And if you didn't tell me…well, _this _would happen. I guess…I guess it wasn't easy for you either way."

"Exactly!" Carly nodded, happy to hear Sam say that. "That's-That's exactly what the problem was!"

"And-And you guys said it meant nothing…" Sam continued, looking at her lap. "And-And I guess it was sort of awkward time when it happened. I-I sort of think I remember saying something about a weasel right when it would've happened. Everybody was crazy that night…"

"So can you forgive us then?" Freddie asked softly.

Sam took a breath. "I-I can."


	16. Chapter 16

Freddie sat outside on his fire escape, looking out at the dark, stormy sky.

Him and Carly had just left Sam's house about an hour ago. And while they had definitely made progress, Freddie still felt like there was a void.

Sam had agreed to forgive them, and that was great. That was _fantastic_, but he still didn't know meant for the two of them.

He hadn't wanted to press his luck back at Sam's. They were lucky that she was willing to accept them back as friends. Taking him back as her boyfriend…that was a whole other story. She could forgive him, but that wouldn't change the fact that he had lied to her. It was one thing to look past it; it was another to trust him enough to let him back in again.

Freddie sighed. To think, this time last night him and Sam had been in each other's arms, kissing, completely carefree…what he wouldn't give to be back there right now.

Suddenly he heard someone knock at the window. He turned around and saw Sam standing there, the moonlight shining off her blonde locks.

"Sam?" Freddie said, hardly daring to believe it. "What-What are you doing here? I thought you were busy unpacking. You know, now-now that you're not leaving."

"I don't have that much stuff," Sam said, giving a small shrug as she sat down on the window ledge. She looked down at her lap. "Your door was open, by the way. Your mom would freak out if she knew that you didn't have it locked with your crazy security system."

"Oh…right," Freddie said, though his mind was far from doors and alarm systems at the moment.

"So," Sam said, looking out at the view. "What are you up to out here?"

"Just thinking about things," Freddie replied.

"Ah," Sam nodded. She was silent for a moment. "You know, I think I would've regretted it…driving back down to L.A."

"Well yeah, you would've gotten caught in the storm," Freddie said. "I say any minute now we'll have a mini-hurricane on our hands."

"I'm not talking about the weather," Sam said softly. "I would've regretted it because I left you and Carly again. Even if I was mad at you guys…So, um, I just wanted to come by and say thanks for making me change my mind about going."  
"Sam, _you're _thanking _me_?" Freddie said, amazed. "After everything that's happened."

"Yeah, well…I-I'm also here because you still owe me two hundred bucks for my tire," Sam said. "I had to _walk _over here, you know."

"Oh, right," Freddie said, quickly pulling out his wallet.

Sam shook her head. "Er, don't worry about it right now. I can't exactly go to a repair shop in this weather anyway."

Freddie nodded, putting his wallet back in his pocket.

Sam took a deep breath. "I didn't come over here just to thank you or hustle you for money…I came to talk about-about _us_."

Freddie felt his breath hitch in his chest. "About-About-"

"You lied to me," Sam said bluntly. "You hid something from me for over a year."

Freddie said nothing. Here it came…she was going to end it, just like that. All because he had been so stupid and-

"But-But you went out of your mind trying to make up for it," Sam continued. "You _slashed my tire _without even worrying about whether I would hurt you. Which I probably would've if there wasn't a cop car parked across the street, come think of it…"

Freddie stared at her, unsure of what she was getting at.

"You stayed at my house for hours, apologizing and talking with me," Sam went on, softly. "You…you really meant it when you said you were sorry."

"Of course I did," Freddie finally spoke. "Believe me, I've never been more sorry about anything in my life."

Sam nodded. "People do stupid things all the time," she said softly. "But…I've never seen anybody as determined to make up for them as you. And-And that's what matters. You can't change what happened last year…but you still tried to make up for it."

Freddie got to his feet and sat down next to her.

"Sam," he said slowly. "Does this mean…are we-are we still-"

Sam cut him off by pressing her lips to his.

The two stayed like that until a loud clasp of thunder broke them apart.

"Yeah," Sam smiled at him. "We're still good."

"Thank God," Freddie said, relieved. "I don't know if you noticed, but I'm sort of a nub without you."

Sam chuckled. "You're one _with_ me too."


	17. Chapter 17

"So you guys really think your viewers will like my sculpture?" Spencer asked as him, Carly, Gibby and Freddie stood in the Shay's living room.

"Sure, kids are really into art from unknown artists," Gibby said. "It's the newest trend."

"I am not unknown!" Spencer said indignantly. "I happen to have reviews on _several _art websites."

"How many have you written yourself?" Carly smiled knowingly.

"A lot," Spencer mumbled, looking down at his feet.

"Well, either way, you'll definitely be known after you show this on iCarly," Freddie told him. "It looks great, Spence."

"Thanks," Spencer replied. "Hey, when are you guys gonna start rehearsal? I kind of need you teens out of here soon. Socko and his cousin are coming by here in a few minutes to pick up his paint roller I used on the sculpture and his cousin is _smoking _hot."

"The one who cuts hair?" Carly asked.

"Yeah, Barbra," Spencer nodded. "So are you just waiting on Sam before you skedaddle upstairs so I can flirt in peace?"

"Um, yeah," Carly nodded. "Just-Just waiting on Sam…"

"Well where is she?" Gibby asked. "I thought she was supposed to be here ten minutes ago. If I had known she was going to be late, I would've spent more time looking at ducks on the Internet."

"Oh I know that site…Quackywings, right?" Spencer said. "Man, they have some _beautiful _ducks."

"Yeah, they do," Gibby nodded. "So where's Sam?"

Carly and Freddie exchanged nervous glances.

"Er, she-she may-" Carly started, but just then the apartment door swung open and Sam came in.

"Hey, sorry I'm late," Sam said, dropping an armload of what looked like fudge pops onto the coffee table. "An ice cream truck broke down a few streets from here and, well, I've been dreaming of that happening ever since I knew what ice cream was so I couldn't pass that opportunity up."  
"It's okay," Carly said at once. "We're just glad you made it."  
Sam gave her a small smile. "Of course I made it."

Freddie stared at Sam a moment before hesitantly stepping towards her.

Sam grinned at him and rolled her eyes before she took the final step to fill the space between the two and kissed him quickly.

"Hi," she said softly so only he could hear her.

"Hi," Freddie whispered back, smiling.

"Well alrighty then," Spencer said, clapping his hands together and ushering the four teens upstairs. "Everybody's here, yay! Now hurry up and get out of here so I can ask out a pretty hair lady!"

"Okay, okay, jeez!" Carly said, rolling her eyes.

"Um, so," Freddie said as the four headed up to the studio. "You ready for some iCarly?"

Sam nodded, squeezing his hand briefly. "Yeah. I'm ready."

…..

That evening after rehearsal, where the four put the final touches on the next night's web show, Carly decided they should order a pizza to celebrate. As she went downstairs to order, Gibby retreated into the bathroom with a tube of ointment, leaving Sam and Freddie alone in the studio.

"You excited for tomorrow?" Sam asked as she busied herself by rummaging through her backpack.

"Yeah," Freddie nodded. He cleared his throat. "So, um…Sam, I-I just wanted to be sure that-that we're good."  
"I told you last night, we _are_," Sam said. She stepped over to him. "Why? Do-Do you not think we are?"

"I do," Freddie said. "But-But I don't want to go back into this leaving anything unaddressed. I mean…I _lied_ to you. I-I just need to know that you can trust me still."

Sam took a deep breath. "Do you know how many people I've realized I can't trust in my life, Freddie? A lot. I _know _when somebody isn't worth trusting. I know when somebody will just hurt me…And you're not one of those people. I know you would never hurt me and-and that's why I forgave you. And I know I can trust you."

Freddie smiled. "You don't know how good it feels to hear you say that."

Sam leaned up and kissed him.

"Hey," Freddie said when they pulled it apart. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the gold locket Sam had thrown at him the night before. "I-I was just wondering if-if you wanted this back. I-I fixed the chain for you."

Sam took the locket and opened it up, smiling at the picture of the couple inside.

Without a word she took the locket and placed it around her neck, where it felt right at home.

…

"What do I do with these hamsters? I've got hamsters, what do I do with the hamsters?" Gibby asked, panicking, as held up a cage of small hamsters.

"Put them by the wedge of cheese!" Carly instructed. "Sam, do you have the confetti all ready?"

"Yup, fifteen pounds of shredded junk, all set," Sam nodded.

"Hey, our page already has over a million people on it," Freddie announced, his camera in his hand. "And the message boards are close to crashing with all the comments coming in about how excited everybody is."

"Hopefully we don't disappoint them," Carly said nervously.

"Hey, it's iCarly," Sam said. "It _has _to be great."

"Thirty seconds until we're live," Freddie said, handing Sam her remote. He leaned down and gave a quick kiss.

"Good luck," he whispered.

"You too, tech stooge," she grinned.

"Gibby!" Carly exclaimed as Freddie got his camera ready. "Your zipper is down! We don't need another Jimmy Fallon incident!"

"Oh, right," Gibby said, struggling to pull his fly up. "It's stuck! Help!"

"No!" Carly and Sam said at once.

"Twenty seconds!" Freddie said as Gibby frantically worked with his pants.

"It's not going up!" Gibby said. "Aw man…I'm getting flashbacks! I promised my mom this wouldn't happen again!"

"Keep pulling!" Sam snapped.

"Ten seconds!"

"Hurry!" Carly said.

"It's going! It's going!"

"In five," Freddie started. "Four, three, two…"

"Hi, I'm Carly!" Carly said happily just as Gibby fixed his zipper.

"I'm Sam!" Sam smiled.

"And I'm Gibby!" Gibby announced.

Carly and Sam both stared at him.

"What? I thought I could be part of that too now…" Gibby frowned.

"And this is iCarly!" Carly said, ignoring Gibby's comment.

"That's right," Sam said, looking right at Freddie and the camera. "We are _back_!"

…..

**AN-Hey everyone, just wanted to let you all know tomorrow is going to be the last chapter of this story. Thanks for all the support you have given it!**


	18. Chapter 18

_Six Months Later_

Freddie parted his way through the huge crowd of students, all clutching their newly earned diplomas.

Many students congratulated him on his great valedictorian speech, and while Freddie appreciated it, there were only three people he wanted to see.

He spotted Gibby and Carly standing by the exit of the large auditorium where the high school graduation had just taken place.

"Freddie!" Carly grinned, waving him over. She threw her arms around him. "Your speech was amazing!"

"Thanks," Freddie said. "I spent all night practicing it with Sam."

"Man, will you look at this thing?" Gibby said, smiling down at his diploma. "I should get me a frame for this. A gold one. With polka-dots or something fancy."

"This is crazy…we're high school graduates!" Carly said. "We're adults! We're going off into the world on our own. Scary, right?"

"A little," Freddie agreed. "Hey, have you guys seen-"

"We are _done_!" Sam exclaimed, running over to the three. "We're _never _gonna have to step foot in that school again thanks to _this_!" She held up her diploma.

"I'm really proud of you, baby," Freddie said, kissing her and almost knocking her cap off in the process. "You worked hard for that."

"Yeah," Sam nodded. "I guess this was kind of worth going back to Ridgeway for. I mean, you didn't get to have a graduation ceremony with online school. They just send you your diploma in the mail."

"At least you would've gotten to meet a mailman," Gibby reasoned.

Carly rolled her eyes. "Oh!" she said. "I almost forgot! Spencer made us all reservations at Petrozini's for tonight!"

"No way," Sam said. "I love that place."

"Yeah, they have _great _breadsticks," Freddie agreed. "That's so nice of Spencer to take us all."

"Well he just thought with today being graduation and our last-"

"Hey!" Sam cut her off. "We agreed not to mention those words until graduation was _done_."

"But it is done," Gibby pointed out.

"Not until we leave this place it's not," Sam snapped.

"You guys!"

The four turned around to see Spencer heading towards them. "Congrats, guys! Look at you all with your _diplomas _and your _caps _and your _graduatingness_…"

"Not sure that's a word," Carly chuckled.

"Hey, just because you have a diploma now doesn't make you the word police," Spencer said. "So you guys ready to go get some Petrozini's?"

"Shoosh yeah," Sam nodded.

"Sí," Freddie replied.

"Heck yes!" Gibby said.

"Good, let's hurry up and get out of here before the parking lot turns into a madhouse then," Carly said.

The five set out but Freddie quickly took Sam's hand, holding her back.

"Are we gonna tell them now?" he whispered to her.

Sam smiled. "We kind of have to…"

"True," Freddie nodded. He leaned down and kissed her again.

….

"A toast!" Carly said later that evening as the group sat around a large table at Petrozini's. "To a great graduation and to our last night all together."

Everyone raised their glasses.

It was true.

The time had come once again for the group of friends to depart, much like they had a year ago.

Carly would be spending the summer in France with her father at his new naval base before heading off to college at Washington State.

Spencer, believe it or not, had gotten quite a bit of recognition from showing his sculptures on iCarly's first web show back six months ago and received an invitation to tour the country with a group of artists to show off his work.

Gibby had gotten a position working a kid's rec center, where he would be doing all sorts of activities with them; activities like the ones he had done in camp so many years ago. He was thrilled to get a chance to be doing something he loved.

Freddie, to nobody's surprise, was off to MIT (though his mother nearly had a mental breakdown when he told her the news).

And Sam…Sam had thought long and hard about what she wanted to do once she left high school. She thought about maybe going into culinary school or performing arts or even giving college a try. In the end, though, she decided to go back to the thing she found that she really enjoyed (as startling as it was for her to discover that).

She was going back into the babysitting business. Her and Cat had kept in touch and since Cat had also recently graduated and was eager to start up the business as well, they figured why not. So the two had pooled all their money together and bought a space in Massachusetts, only a short drive away from MIT's campus…

Each girl was going to bring something special to the business, they decided. Cat was going to teach the kids all about music (she _had _gone to a performing arts school, after all), and Sam was going to teach the kids karate. It wouldn't be a typical daycare center but, hey, they had never been typical.

"I can't believe it…we're all going off and doing things…like grown ups!" Spencer said.

"You've _been _a grown up for fourteen years," Freddie pointed out.

"Barely," Spencer scoffed.

"But even though we _are _going off and doing things without all of us there," Carly continued. "We still _have_ each other. We'll always be there for one another…I know we will."

"Aw, don't cry, kid," Sam said.

"When does everybody leave?" Gibby asked.

"I'm flying out at five in the morning and Spencer's leaving to meet up with the art tour right after he takes me to the airport," Carly said. "And you're leaving tomorrow too for training for the rec center, right?"

"Yeah, apparently they've changed the way they do lanyards now," Gibby said.

"Which means it's just Sam and Freddie left in Seattle for the next few weeks," Carly said. "Hold the fort down for us."

"Actually," Freddie said, taking Sam's hand under the table. "Sam and I are leaving tomorrow too."

"Where are you going?" Spencer frowned. "I thought you didn't have to be at MIT for another couple weeks and Sam still had a bunch of stuff to figure out before the daycare center opened."  
"We're not going to Massachusetts," Sam told him. "We're going on a road trip all around the country. We're gonna go to the Grand Canyon, the beaches in Florida, the mountains up north…"

"Whoa!" Carly grinned. "That sounds so fun. But…I didn't know you were planning that. Why the sudden urge for a road trip?"

"Oh, we just wanted to celebrate something," Freddie smiled.

"The new liquid soap dispensers at Pottery Barrel?" Gibby asked excitedly.

"No!" Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"Well what is it?" Spencer asked.

Sam and Freddie smiled at each other.

"Well…before you guys freak out, just keep in mind nothing's going to happen for a long time," Freddie said. "Not until I graduate MIT and Sam and Cat's daycare center really gets going. But, well, Sam and I love each other. And-And we know that we still will in five years or ten years…always. So that's why we decided to, well, make things a _little _more official before we take the next big steps in our lives."

"What are you talking about?" Carly asked curiously. "What are you-oh my God!"

Sam had held up her hand, which had a small sparkling ring on it.

"Is-Is that…It's-It's-"

"It's an engagement ring," Freddie told her, grinning as he put his arm around Sam.

"Whoa!" Gibby exclaimed.

"Like we said, there's not gonna be a wedding for awhile," Sam said quickly. "We're both broke and we're gonna be busy for the next few years. But, well, we-we both know we want to be together for the rest of our lives…"

"Guys, I'm so happy for you!" Carly squealed. "This is so exciting! You have to tell me everything? When did this happen? Does Freddie's mom know yet? When are you going to at least _start _planning the wedding? Oh Sam when I'm in France I can try and find some dresses and-"

"Easy, there's still time for all that," Sam chuckled.

"Congrats, guys," Gibby said. "Hey, at the wedding can I wear a tux?"

"Um…that's what one would _normally _wear," Freddie replied.

"Okay good, because when I went to my Uncle's wedding last year, _nobody _had a tux!" Gibby said. "It was the worst night of my life!"

Sam and Freddie turned to Spencer, who was sitting there, stunned.

"Spence?" Sam said softly. "You-You okay?"

"Normally, I-I'd say two kids getting engaged right after high school is stupid," Spencer said. "That they probably don't even know what love is and that they'll be broken up within a year. But…not you guys. I-I knew a long time ago that you two were meant to be together. I'm just glad you both finally got it through your heads too."

Sam and Freddie grinned as Spencer hugged them both.

And so for the rest of the evening, Carly, Spencer, Gibby, Sam and Freddie made the most out of the last night they would all spend together for a long time. All of them, however, knew what Carly had said earlier was true; they would always be there for each other.

…

**AN-This is more along the lines of how I expected iGoodbye to go, so I just really wanted to end the story this way. Anyway, that's it, the story's done. Thanks so much for all the support you guys showed it, it means the world to me!**


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